Outcasts of Time
By: Stormie

AN: Okay this just appeared in my brain one evening and it actually forced it's way onto paper. So here for your viewing enjoyment is this. Uhmm don't worry if you don't get it. My beta reader Lady Pyro didn't know what the hell I was talking about either so you'll be in good company. ^_^ It isn't about who you think it is.

Oh, there is some Japanese, but don't freak out. I hate randomn Japanese phrases too. I only use the Japanese names, like Kaede-baba, because they look better to me. I'm sorry I have bootleg subs. The only other Japanese word is "Osuwari." If you can't figure it out from all the other stories or from context than I'm sorry but you suck.

12~15: fixed the couple messed up tenses. enjoy!

~**~

It must be nice to be a tree. Trees don't have to go anywhere or do anything. No worries, no problems. They're just there. Standing forever...well until they rot and fall over or get burnt or cut down.

....

Okay, so maybe trees do have some problems, but still one problem I've got that they don't is time. And I'm not talking about time living, I mean not being in the right time. Trees are trees - today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Time alwasy changes. By the time you think of now, it's all ready become then, and later is now now.

That made no sense and my head hurts. I should just enjoy this time even if I don't belong to it. This tree I've been leaning against is comfortable. It's nice to let my eyes close and let the sounds and smells of the forest soothe me and my sore head.

The slight breeze rustles through the leaves of my tree as a few birds sing to each other. Blossoms fall from a neighboring tree, spreading fragrance and silky petals through the air. Some things don't change, I sigh contendly. But this forest...

In my time, this place is covered with buildings and roads. This forest doesn't exsist. That thought brings a frown. No, the forest was further away. This part is all new growth...all but my tree, Goshinboku. This tree will stand for another 500 years at least. I know. I've seen it. Something familiar and unchanged.

Another smell reaches my nose. Sweet, fresh, familiar...but different.

"Inuyasha! I'm sorry I'm late, but..."

Kagome, girl from the future and the past? Everyone says she's Kikyou reborn. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. She does smell a little like Kikyou and sometimes looks the same, but maybe I'm just looking for my time again. My head's playing tricks like my nose did the first time I met Kagome.

She's looking at me strangely. Shit. What was she babbling about? "Keh!" I grab that enormous yellow sack she insits on bringing and stomp towards the village. I hear her sigh and I can't stop from smirking. works everytime, even when I have no idea what's going on.

Our casual stroll leads us into an average looking village. People working the fields, cows grazing, children running around screaming. Just a village, but not the village I remember so well...actually not that well. I just burnt it to the ground, never really stayed there. It was bigger I think. Didn't look so poor and run down. This village has more memeories than the old one, but still...more change.

Kagome stops at a hut on the edge of the village and looks at me again. "What are you looking at, bitch?"

She glares, but let's it go. "You've been so out of it, Inuyasha. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, bitch. I'm not some weak human."

Shit. Me and my big...

"Osuwari!"

...mouth.

The girl stomps past my flattened carcass on her way inside the hag's place. The bitch. How dare she just
leave me planted in the ground like a fucking daisy! Doesn't she know it HURTS when she does that to me? I shake my head - once I regain the ability to move - and rub my spine. The 'sit' is one thing that has no connection to my time. Definitely a new experience I don't need.

Pushing open the door of Kaede's is like walking blind through a battlefield. Anything could happen at anytime...like the lecher getting crushed by Sango's Hiraikotsu for example. Sliding into my favorite spot by the door I realize something. Perverts shouldn't breed...ever. How Miroku got pupped is something I don't want to know about.

More thinking about the past. Miroku, Sango, the pain in the ass kitsune snuggling against Kagome - none of them were born in my time. Hell, their PARENTS might not have been alive either. Thinking about Kagome, who hasn't even been born yet, just hurts my head even more.

Suddenly, Kaede-baba limps in from the back room. She raises her eyebrow at the monk, nods in my direction, and settles down beside Kagome. Good choice, but then she's an old wise woman now. I remember how she trailed after Kikyou like a shadow. But that was in my time.

I think finding out who Kaede was after Kagome freed me from my seal was the greatest shock of my life. I hadn't known till that moment how long I'd been asleep. Or dead, whatever. Yeah, I'd notieced little differences, but it wasn't till Kaede-baba said 50 years had passed that it really sunk in how far away I was from anything I knew. If I'd become human for Kikyou, we would have both been dead. I would have never met Kagome.

My eyes drift back to the strange girl in her weird future clothes. She's farther away from her time than I am from mine, but it doesn't bother her. Of course, she can go back to her place whenever she wants. I can't.

That's what I hate the most when she jumps through that fucking well. If I can't be in my time, then she can't either. So I'm selfish, so what.

Kagome belongs with me because we're the same. Outcasts of time. Damn. That sounds like the title of one of her stupid spell books.

So I'm the past, Kagome's the future, and everyone else is the present? Keh. I'm going to take one of those aspirin thingys. Past, present, future, who cares. We're all here now...whenever that is.

Problem solved. Time for some ramen. And isn't it convenient the brat has some?

*BOP*

"Wahhhhh! Kaaaagomeeee..."

"Inuyasha! Osuwari!"

*SLAM*

"SHIT!"

~**~End~**~

End note: Sorry about the tense changes. I must have been tired when I was writing and I'm pretty tired now.

Differences on the forest and village: The few shots we've seen of Kikyou's village seem to indicate that it was much larger, cleaner, and more advanced than Kaede's village. Also, Kikyou was standing on some kind of terrace when she shot Inuyasha, indicating that what became Inuyasha's Forest was actually either part of the village or part of a much larger temple complex than exists 50 years later. The shrine grounds above Kaede's hut are NOT the same shrine grounds that belong to Kagome's family because Goshinboku is part of the Higurashi shrine, but in Kaede's time it is still part of the forest. Either that or it's a slight plot hole.

Can't think of anything else so please leave comments. ^_^