'My father summoned us?' Inuyasha thought, as he sat brooding after dinner. He stared into the flames, lost in thought. Why would his father want to see them, and how did he even know they ended up here? He hadn't seen his father since he was very young, and only had vague memories of the man. All he knew was that his mother had loved him dearly.
While Inuyasha sat there deep in thought, Kagome gathered the fish bones to carry them off away from their campsite. Ever since Myoga had hopped off, her friend hadn't spoken much at all. She recalled how his face turned white at the mention of the name.
He was as still as a statue when she returned, so feeling concerned, she leaned over his shoulder as she came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his upper torso in a hug. To her surprise, he leaned back into her embrace. "Inu no Taisho," she repeated quietly into his ear. "He was…" She didn't want to say it in case she was wrong, but she had a pretty good guess, with what she knew about his history.
"My father," Inuyasha sighed, coming out of his trance. He grabbed her forearm and squeezed gently, as he appreciated the comforting gesture.
"I thought so," Kagome murmured. She had remembered him once mentioning that he had lost his father when she was young. So much must be going through his mind right now, to actually meet the man who fathered him, even thought it was happening about five hundred years before he was conceived.
"What do I even say? Do I just pretend like I have no idea who he is?" Inuyasha blurted out. He had so many questions and zero answers.
Unfortunately, Kagome wasn't much help herself. "I don't know," she told him sadly. "But I think that you should just go and play it by ear. You can play a thousand scenarios in your head, and it probably won't happen like any of them. That's usually how it works in real life."
"You're right," Inuyasha muttered. "I'm sure that whatever happens will catch me completely off guard. I still can't help but imagine what it will be like. How hard it might be to see him, especially since he won't even know a thing about me."
Kagome tightened her arms around his neck. "This place is full of surprises, that's for sure. But think of it as a good surprise, because how many people get to say they got the chance to meet a parent they lost as a young child?"
Inuyasha smiled lightly at that. "Probably only me. Getting sucked into a well and traveling five hundred years into the past isn't exactly a common occurrence. We should get some rest soon. So we can be on our way early in the morning."
"Agreed," Kagome said, loosening her grip on his upper body. She couldn't resist playfully ruffling a hand through his hair at the top of his head as she pulled away. Thick bangs always hung down his forehead, which she had always been a fan of. "Inuyasha, one other thing I meant to ask if you could do earlier." He turned to gaze up at her as she spoke. "How many days have we been here so far?"
"Um," Inuyasha paused to think for a moment, as he started to tick off his fingers. "You got bit the first night, then it was almost a week later by the time we got to Jinenji. I think it took about a week and a half to two weeks until you were strong enough to leave. And another couple of days since we left his hut. My best guess is fifteen to eighteen days here?"
"Ok. I had no idea since I was unconscious for most of it," Kagome sighed. "I was thinking it would be a good idea to keep track of how long we are here. Just because. Too bad we don't have any paper or pens. Maybe scratch tally marks on a rock or something, like they did in the good old days?"
"The good old days are right fucking now," Inuyasha flashed a grin at her. "But yeah. Good idea. I'll find something in the morning to keep track of the days on." He paused, eyeing the orange and pink sky thoughtfully, before his eyes widened. "Oh, shit. That's tonight!"
"What's tonight?" Kagome asked in alarm.
Inuyasha looked grim. It was more of an annoyance to him, and not that big of a deal back home, but he could see the potential problems it could cause in this world. Fortunately they hadn't been disturbed last night, but that wasn't to say that it would be the same every single night. Too bad he hadn't thought of that when they had started their journey north a few hours earlier and were now farther away from Osaka.
"Inuyasha, what is it?" Kagome repeated again with concern. She walked around to kneel in front of him, since he was facing away. The stress was visible on his face.
"I'm going to be human tonight," he muttered.
"Oh," Kagome blinked. "That's fine…we can just stay in this cave for the night."
"No, it's not fine!" Inuyasha grumbled at her. "I won't be able to sense anything that can be a potential danger. I won't be able to hear or smell like I usually can. And I won't be strong enough to protect you the way I should be able to." His voice dropped as he spoke the last bit.
Kagome reached for his hand and squeezed the back of it. It was still a bit strange, she thought, how oddly protective he had become over her. The past few days they had gotten along way better than they ever had, and she really enjoyed the change in their friendship. She hoped that they could keep it going.
"I'll let you use my bow," she told him with a small smile. "You'd probably be a way better shot than me. I've been practicing while you're off hunting but I'm just not that good yet."
Inuyasha gave her a fleeing smile in return. "I'm sure I am way better with it than you. Let me hang onto the bow all night, even though it's not my weapon of choice, and I'll feel a little better about being human."
"Ok, you can have it, but you'll go to sleep, right?" Kagome frowned at him.
"Probably not," Inuyasha admitted. Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "Maybe." She glared at him and jabbed at his chest with a finger. "Ok, I'll try to lay down!"
"Good," Kagome smiled sweetly at him, happy now that she got her way. Inuyasha was just a bit bewildered at what had happened. Since when did she have that kind of power over him?
His skin prickled a bit, making him turn his attention towards the evening sky. The brilliant shades of orange were fading into navy blue, as twilight rapidly approached. Noticing his sudden agitation, Kagome sat and watched him quietly. Before her eyes, his shining silver hair turned to steel, and then continued darkening all the way until it was jet black. His cute dog ears had disappeared at some point as well, when she was distracted by his rapidly changing hair color.
"I've never seen you as a human before," Kagome said softly.
Inuyasha gave her a wry smile. "Most people haven't. Usually I just stay home and play video games or watch tv when I'm human. So…what do you think?" He was a bit nervous as to what her answer would be.
Kagome pretended to think, tapping her finger to her chin, as she gazed at him. His face was exactly the same, but he had human ears peeking out from his hair. Aside from the black hair right now, the only other major change was his eyes had gone from bright gold to a rich greenish brown. "I think," she paused, grinning slyly, for he looked a little nervous. Her eyes flicked down to his chest, admiring his nicely fitting short-sleeved tee-shirt. "I think you look like you belong in a band."
That made Inuyasha relax and chuckle a bit. "I guess." He rubbed his arms and shivered slightly. It was more chilly than he expected it to be, but that was probably due to him having more of a tolerance for the cold when he was in his regular hanyou form. His movement made her glance at his hands, which had blunt human nails instead of sharp claws.
"Too bad we don't have blankets or anything," Kagome said. She had noticed him shiver for just a second, and she was pretty cold herself. "Even with the fire going, it would help a lot to be able to cover up."
"I'll be fine," Inuyasha replied quickly, before glancing her way. 'She's cold too,' he realized, when he noticed she was shivering slightly. "You're not, though. If you want, you can come closer…"
Kagome blushed a bit at the offer, but took him up on it, and scooted closer so that their sides were touching. It had been a long day and she was kind of sleepy. With the fire roaring in front of her, and the warmth on her side, the drowsy feeling quickly grew stronger. Half aware of what she was doing, Kagome rested her head on Inuyasha's upper arm and closed her eyes. He felt a pang as she cuddled against his side and fell asleep within minutes. Unsure of what else to do, he shifted her around once she was in deep sleep and lay her down flat on the ground. He was tired too, so he curled up close to her and ended up drifting off to sleep eventually, his fist gripping the bow.
In the morning, Inuyasha woke with a start as soon as his youkai senses came flooding back to him. Somehow he had fallen asleep again after waking up for the third or fourth time. At least they made it through unharmed, he realized with relief. Kagome had been laying next to him, and as he rose, she rolled away, waking up in the process.
When they were ready to finally leave, Kagome crossed her arms and gave Inuyasha a look. "I'm not riding on your back right now. Maybe in a day or two."
"That's fine, no need to," he gave her a devilish grin. Clearly she had been expecting him to argue and insist, for her eyes widened a bit and she backed up a step.
"What are you—heyyy!" her voice rose upwards in a loud squeal, as Inuyasha rushed her and with one swift movement, grabbed her around the waist and slung her over his shoulder. As she kicked her legs, he wrapped an arm tightly around her knees, to prevent her from thrashing about. "Inuyasha!" she howled, putting her hands on his back in effort to keep her upper body from banging into him.
"What?" he yelled, as he picked up speed. "You said you didn't want to ride on my back!"
"I didn't mean carry me like this!" she shouted in response, between giggles. Her hair whipped in front of her face, making it almost impossible to see the ground flashing by behind them.
Eventually he slowed to a walk and stopped, letting her slide through his arms. Kagome blushed slightly as her body slid along his lean frame, his arms lingering around her once she was standing a second longer than necessary. Was it intentional, she wondered?
"So, you'd rather just walk?" Inuyasha asked, as they strolled along. It was already pretty warm out, as it was almost June. He wasn't the biggest fan of the heat or the sun, so he hoped this whole ordeal would be over before they got to the worst months of the year. While he realized then that they had only assumed it would be the same month here, he figured even if it wasn't, it would be pretty close, judging by the temperatures and the fact that the trees were full of green leaves and budding flowers were poking up through the grass.
"Yeah, for now, at least. Just because of, um, my personal problems," Kagome's cheeks reddened a bit. It still mortified her to bring up the subject around her friend she had a long-time crush on. "At least not while I'm still trying to learn to deal with it properly."
Inuyasha knew exactly what she meant, so he didn't push the subject. "Alright, fine. We can just walk together for now. Don't suppose there is any real reason to hurry." The road they were on right now was pretty flat and easy to navigate. It seemed to be heading in the right direction for quite a ways, so he figured they would just stay on it, rather than attempt a shortcut though the thick, overgrown brush.
Around dinner time, they decided to take a longer break, as Kagome was a bit fatigued from walking all day long. They had stopped at a large lake, so fish ended up being on the menu yet again. Inuyasha insisted that Kagome eat a little more, just for extra energy. She was looking quite a bit healthier, he noticed happily.
"Before we keep going, we should probably bathe here," Kagome suggested. It seemed abnormally hot today, despite the cool morning, and she was sweaty and just felt gross everywhere. Inuyasha agreed to it, so they sought out a good spot to get in. The shore of the lake had a bit of a rocky peninsula jutting out, with a smaller cove like area on each side. "You can bathe there, and I'll take this side, ok? No peeking."
"No peeking. You get started first since you take longer to bathe," Inuyasha decided. He spotted some animal bones laying close to the lake, so he went over to pick through them, trying to find a large one he could make a knife out of so he wasn't having to use his claws for everything. Since they had no way to properly store meat here, he had been a bit reluctant to try and kill a deer, for most of the meat would just go to waste.
Several minutes later, after he heard Kagome splashing around, Inuyasha headed to his side of the rocky peninsula and stripped down bare. The water was a little warmer than he expected, but it still felt very refreshing. Holding his nose, he submerged his entire body to get his hair wet.
"I would kill for some conditioner right now," Kagome muttered. She was busy scrubbing her hair as best as she could, with what she had, which was literally just water and her fingertips. Thankfully her wavy hair was usually pretty easy to comb out, but she swore it was getting progressively worse the longer she was in the past. She could feel some knots that proved too difficult to easily pull apart.
Inuyasha emerged from the water, sputtering a bit, and shook his head to get the water out of his ears. Once that was done, he started to scrub his body with his hands, only to freeze in the middle of action. His ears had picked up the sound of childish giggling, which definitely did not sound like Kagome's laughs. He quickly whirled around and spotted a small kitsune up on the rocky peninsula, playing with Kagome's bra.
"Hey, drop that!" Inuyasha yelled, as he leapt out of the water onto the rocks, momentarily forgetting the fact that he was completely naked.
At the sound of Inuyasha shouting, Kagome had jumped and turned towards the rocks, despite knowing he was on the other side, just as he landed on top of them. She yelped with shock as she saw he was totally naked. "I said no peeking!" she screamed, flinging her hands across her chest, as she had partially risen up out of the water.
"I'm not peeking!" Inuyasha yelled back, then his eyes widened as he realized he gave her quite a show just now. He hurriedly covered himself with his hands and gave the rocks a super fast glance over, noticing that all of their clothes were gone. "Some little fox stole all our clothes!" he yelled. "Where the hell are you, you little runt?"
The branches rustled above them. Inuyasha snapped his head up, eyes darting all over, until he spotted the little demon sitting high up on a branch, still playing with the elastic of the straps of the bra. He immediately leapt up, grabbing a branch and pushing off of the trunk with his feet, to try and navigate up. The little fox leapt higher and higher and then disappeared from the tree.
"Haha, I'm down here!" a tiny voice called, from the ground.
Inuyasha growled and glanced down. "Goddamn it. Get back here! Drop that!" As he leapt down from the tree with cat like agility, the kitsune disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He coughed a bit, fanning the air, and leapt out of it, to catch sight of the little bushy tail sticking out from behind a tree. With a huge leap, Inuyasha was there in a split second, only to find nothing.
Now the giggling came from a bush to his right. Inuyasha whirled about, chasing after the sound, only to find himself face planting into the dirt when something slammed into the top of his head. It took him a moment to get the damn thing off, but when he did, he was furious. "Stop playing games, you rotten little fucker!"
Back in the lake, Kagome had dared to scramble out of the water in search for her clothes, in case there was some chance that Inuyasha had overlooked them somehow. They were nowhere in sight. "What the hell is going on!" she screeched. All she could hear from within the trees surrounding her was crashing and an awful lot of profanity. When she felt a tap on the back of her calf, she screamed and leapt back into the water to cover up.
"Hello!" said a little demon boy. He had bright red hair and big green eyes, and the biggest, bushiest tail she had ever seen.
"Who are you and why are you bothering us?" Kagome screamed. She was angry that he had seen her naked, for she knew that although he looked like a little boy, he very well could be hundreds of years old.
"Name's Shippo! And I am practicing for the fox demon exam!" he grinned widely at her. "Watch this!"
Kagome gaped as the kitsune transformed into a balloon and started to drift away, only to suddenly pop back into his previous form and land back on the rocks on his feet. A split second later, Inuyasha landed in a crouch next to him, grabbing hold of his furry fox tail and dangling him midair. Unwittingly, he ended up giving Kagome quite the view again, making her turn beet red and whirl away.
"If you don't tell me where our clothes are right fucking now, I will rip your tail from your body in three, two,-" Inuyasha threatened, only to have his countdown interrupted by a marble-sized ball flung at his face, which erupted in a cloud of dust.
Kagome shrieked as Inuyasha immediately choked up and fell forward, off of the rocks and almost right into her lap. He hit the water with a loud splash, limbs flailing, as he struggled to right himself. He was coughing and gagging so hard right now he couldn't do anything but wheeze.
"I took down the big dog demon!" Shippo laughed maniacally, as he leapt side to side on the tips of his toes, doing a victory dance.
"That wasn't very nice, Shippo," Kagome said sternly. She glanced sideways at Inuyasha, who was burying his face in his hands, still having a fit, as he coughed up the water he just inhaled.
The kitsune laughed and danced in place. "Well, he wasn't very nice to me!" he declared in his shrill voice. "He kept chasing me and threatening to kill me! I just wanted to play! He's a big meanie!"
Kagome did her best to try and give him a smile. "I think there was just a big misunderstanding here." Clearly chasing the little boy around like a murderous madman hadn't worked, so a different approach just might do the trick. She was glad to see that his tap-dancing slowed down a good bit, as he seemed to listen to her. "You see, my friend was just upset, because he thought you took our clothes."
"I did take your clothes!" Shippo declared proudly. "I am practicing for the fox demon exam and I am going to win!"
"Right, so you did take our clothes. So Inuyasha, that's my friend here, had good reason to be upset with you," Kagome explained, trying to be as kind and patient as possible.
"He said he would rip my tail off!" Shippo howled.
Kagome shifted in the water, glancing at Inuyasha again, to see how he was faring. He was still growling like mad and splashing water at his eyes, so he hadn't recovered quite yet, apparently. "I'm sure he was just joking and didn't actually mean that. Kind of like how you didn't mean to be mean to us, by taking our clothes. Will you please return our clothes to us? That would make me very, very happy if you did that."
"But he was about to rip my tail off!" Shippo protested again. "I should turn the clothes into mushrooms!"
"He did say that, but Inuyasha says a lot of things he doesn't mean. I know he would never rip your tail off. I would never let him," Kagome was doing her best to calm the little kitsune down. Fortunately he seemed to be willing to at least listen to her. "Those clothes you ran off with, those were mine too, and I haven't done anything mean to you. It would hurt my feelings if you turned them into mushrooms."
That made Shippo frown and droop his posture slightly. "But…"
"Please?" She flashed him her prettiest smile, and to her delight, the little kitsune nodded and disappeared in an instant.
"I still can't see!" Inuyasha moaned. Dropping his hands from his face, he turned his head a bit, towards the sound of Kagome's voice.
"Don't look at me!" Kagome gasped, and immediately shoved his shoulder, so that he toppled backwards into the water.
Inuyasha growled as he flailed in the water on his back, arms and legs struggling to help him right himself. His head felt like it was being crushed and fast movements made him dizzy. "I literally just said that I can't fucking see!"
Kagome laughed lightly. "Oh. I guess I missed that part. Sorry."
Moments later, Shippo returned and dropped the big handful of clothes on top of the rocks. "Here. I brought your clothes back. This thing is so funny. What is it for?"
"Nothing that you need to worry about!" Kagome squeaked, her eyes bugging out when she saw him play with the red lacy bra she had been wearing and put it on top of his head, with a cup on each side by his ears. "Please just put that down, ok?"
"Fine," Shippo sighed. He had been having such fun playing tricks on the two of them, but he found himself wanting to make the pretty girl happy. Reluctantly, he dropped the weird piece of clothing that smelled like her on top of the pile he brought back.
"Shippo?" Kagome smiled, as she paddled a little closer to him. "Thank you for bringing the clothes back. Did you make sure to return every single thing you took?" She raised an eyebrow at him, and then smiled when he nodded rapidly. "Perfect. There's one more thing, though. My friend here seems to be blind and in pain, and that makes me very sad. You threw something onto his face that made him this way, right? So you can help him get back to normal?"
Shippo bit his lip and looked back and forth between the two of them. "But…but…he wanted to kill me!"
"I know he didn't actually want to kill you, trust me," Kagome gave him a comforting smile. "Remember? He was just angry and when you're angry, you say and do things you don't mean. We all do, even you have, I am sure. I know you don't like him very much right now, but I would greatly appreciate it if you could make my friend go back to normal. If anything, do it for me, not for him. Ok? It makes me very, very sad to see him like this."
"Ok," Shippo told her sullenly. He did feel a bit bad, for making her upset. She was nice and he liked her.
Kagome gave the little kitsune another smile. "Shippo? I'm not sure what exactly that fox demon exam you mentioned consists of, but I just know that you have the potential to be the best, sly little fox out there. I want you to show me just how powerful you really are, by bringing my friend back to total normal. If you can do that for me, then I have no doubt you will win first place!"
That made Shippo grin from ear to ear. "I am the most powerful! I will be the most famous kitsune in the world! Watch this!" Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out another ball and threw it at Inuyasha's face. A more sparkly cloud enveloped him, making him cough once again, but this time less painfully.
Inuyasha sneezed loudly and then blinked several times, as the world around him came into view again.
Kagome grinned as she watched his eyes gain focus, only to gasp a second later and push him back. "I said don't look!"
Shippo laughed as he watched the two of them in the water. They reminded him of his parents a little bit. Speaking of his parents…"I gave you your clothes back and his eyesight back. Now I need to go home since my parents don't like me out too late in the day. They say that big, scary dog demons lurk about and want to eat me."
Kagome laughed as the kitsune stuck his tongue out at Inuyasha. "Well, you better go home then. We are trying to go home ourselves as well. That's why we really needed our clothes back. You did such a great job tricking us today. I'm know you'll pass your fox demon exam with flying colors!"
"I'll have the best grade of them all!" Shippo boasted proudly. "You two should name your next child after me! Shippo the most greatest kitsune!" With that, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Inuyasha and Kagome turned to stare at each other with incredulous looks on their faces, before bursting into laughter. "What the actual hell just happened?" Kagome giggled.
"Fucking kitsune, I swear to god," Inuyasha grumbled. "Nothing but trouble." He paused, glancing over at the girl next to him. Her wet hair made nice little ringlets against her pale skin, that he suddenly found himself wanting to play with. With a sigh, he forced himself to look away, because he was very much aware that they were completely naked and in very close vicinity to each other, and he had quite the active imagination.
"Better to have that kind of trouble than actual trouble than the danger trouble though, right?" Kagome asked lightly.
"I suppose," Inuyasha muttered. Running a hand through his bangs, he sighed. The headache was almost gone now at least. He started to rise up out of the water, making Kagome turn away from him to give him some privacy. The cooling air felt good on his skin. He climbed out of the lake and dug through the pile of clothes, growling when he realized that the lying little fox had only returned Kagome's clothes. He was going to have to hunt down his own clothes himself.
"Here you go. Might as well get yourself dressed while I look for my clothes. The son of a bitch left them scattered around somewhere," Inuyasha told her, dropping the balled up bundle on a large flat rock at the edge of the pool.
"Alright. If you need help looking for anything, just…" Kagome began, as she inadvertently glanced his way out of habit. 'Holy shit,' she thought in a daze, as she gaped up at her good looking companion. He was standing there, dark silver hair soaking wet and sticking to his shoulders and arms, with nothing but his hands covering himself. Her eyes slowly trailed down his bare chest and perfectly muscled stomach, pausing as she stared at his hands. 'Both hands,' she thought with a small grin.
Turning bright red, as she realized what she was doing, Kagome's eyes darted back up to his face to see him giving her quite the smirk. Out of embarrassment, she instantly stuttered something inaudible and whirled away from him.
"I should be able to sniff my clothes out," Inuyasha told her. He was quite surprised by Kagome's rather positive reaction to him just now. Initially he had been a bit embarrassed at being so naked, but seeing the way she clearly checked him out, and obviously enjoyed what she saw, greatly stoked his ego. Being admired wasn't exactly anything he was used to experiencing. It was cute how flustered she became all of a sudden.
Kagome merely nodded and sank into the water a little deeper. "Uh huh, yeah. Of course you can," she agreed, her voice high and faint.
"I'll, uh, go look for them now," Inuyasha told her, backing away to where his clothes were. He disappeared in a flash, hurriedly hunting them down before anything else came along and ran off with them.
Meanwhile Kagome sat blinking in the water, the image of him standing there naked still ingrained in her mind as she replayed it over and over. 'Oh my' she thought, as she found herself thankful for the cold water.
A/N: Still fangirling in my mind over the first episode of Yashahime! Six months of episodes to look forward to, please don't disappoint. Can't say I'm the biggest fan of the new art style though. I'm pretty sure Miroku has the new ability to see straight into your soul with those giant eyes of his now. Sheesh. Some characters look good and others not so much. The original series was so beautifully drawn. Inuyasha's attacks have weird sound effects as well. Feel free to review if you're enjoying it so far lol...I'm trying.