CHOICES are a small series of short stories completely unrelated to each other. So far there are two stories, including this one, to the CHOICES series. Please keep in mind at this moment I have no desire to write a sequel for I am more then happy at how these stories have turned out. Thank you and I hope to see you in the next CHOICES-INUYASHA story.

AN: I hope you all enjoy these stories. I have two written so far and another in the ideal stage. So please keep a look out for them. You'll find this has mostly scraps of ideals and leaves it up to the reader to finish it. Most of these start out as one parters and end up here because of the ending.

You'll also find this is my absolute favorite story out of all the one's I write. I like it because you don't have to continue with one plot line and it usually works wonders for my other ideals. So I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing them!

Choices-Inuyasha                                                                                               

By Wyltk

"You stupid, Hanyou!"

The words sprung through the crisp fall air and the villagers shook their heads trying valiantly to ignore the fight in Inuyasha's forest. However, after the last words echoed back to them there was silence, dangerous silence. No sit, no insults, nothing followed after "Hanyou" making the villagers mumble worriedly. The people who had been listening in the fields stopped and looked into the forest people looked out of their huts towards the forest.

It seemed as if the fight had been moved or stopped. But Kaede, who had been one of the first to become worried after the dreadful silence, felt something different. Something terrible had happened with those last words and as she looked towards the forest she wondered what she should do about it.

In the end she didn't send Miroku or Sango, she didn't go herself, she left it alone. This, she thought, was something they had to solve on their own. She never suspected the danger that would come from that decision.

~*~

"Don't you ever, EVER, call me that again."

Inuyasha's eyes flushed blood red and she backed away from him. His teeth were clenched his upper lip risen as his fang glinted in the light. His fingers were curled in an attacking position. His eyes flicked back to their gold and then red again and she shuddered at the anger and hurt that marked them, and the blood lust.

"I'll call you what ever I like, Hanyou!" she yelled her pride pricked at his ordering. Immediately, she regretted her haste words when he rumbled deep in his chest and flew at her his claws striking the tree on either side of her head. His red eyes stared into her and fear slammed into her heart.

"Don't call me that." he said his voice scaring her more then she had ever been before. He drew back away from her and jumped away leaving Kagome to sink into a small ball on the ground shivering.

~*~

She didn't see him for more then four weeks as she stayed on the other side of the well. When she did finally appear over the lip of the well, only Shippo was there. From what she heard everyone had scattered besides Shippo everyone doing different things for the same goal, more or less. He was the only one that waited. The only one who knew I was going to come back.

Still the wait hadn't cost him. He looked ill his brown, youthful face sad and small. He only became animated when she came over the crest to the village, running towards her and jumping into her arms begging her not to leave him. She didn't see Inuyasha during the two weeks she stayed there though Miroku and Sango showed up separately.

And as more weeks past Inuyasha never came. He didn't come when she walked for three days straight looking for him. He didn't come when she screamed his name in the middle of his forest. He didn't come when she'd promise to not go back to her time unless he agreed. He didn't come even when she promised to take the rosary off and have Kaede put one on her just for him. He didn't come.

And slowly as the weeks passed she was left alone with her friends. And slowly they too began to leave as people needed them. Sometimes they would stay away for months as different things happened. Kagome took to going through the well every morning and coming back right after school. She spent her weekends waiting for Inuyasha to return. Her mother, grandfather, and Sota hardly saw her any more.

And slowly more then a year past, news came that Naraku was dead. She had passed her graduation tests six months before what she should have and there was nothing left to do but gather the rest of the shards. Still she stayed in the village. Staying around the village, mostly she was found curled up under Inuyasha's tree or practicing archery.

It was a summer day and she had been asleep under the same tear tears still rolling slowly down her face. That was when Inuyasha finally came back.

"Kagome." he said softly and she jerked awake immediately looking at him in shock. She trembled as she looked up at him sitting up to her knees and bowing low.

"Inuyasha! I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Inuyasha! I'll never call you names again. I'll never insult you again. Just please, please, don't leave me again. I don't think I would live if you left me again."

She wept and he looked into her eyes realizing that her eyes held the burden of growing up to fast. He picked her up, placing her on her feet before he wrapped his arms around her.

"When I was little I had a friend. A very good friend who played with me even you I was a half-breed. One day I made him mad at me and he yelled. He said I was ugly, and I didn't deserve anything as a stupid Hanyou. It's one of the nicer terms to describe us. But I hate it. I hate that name more then anything. And I hated your for saying it. Or I thought I did. I over reacted, Kagome, perhaps we both did."

She clung to him sobbing louder then ever tears continually falling.

"I'll never call you that again Inuyasha. Please just don't leave me."

"I'm sorry Kagome, but I must. You see, I'm not really here. I'm dead and I just came back to tell you why and that I loved you. Sorry Kagome." And then he faded away Kagome falling from his arms her eyes closed.

 
 
AN: Now the final part of choices, the questions. You'll more then likely find these at the end of each Choices story. And so they start.
 
First question is Inuyasha really dead? Was he pretending to be to see her reaction? And if so why didn't he stay around?
 
Second to that was she just dreaming? Maybe she dreamed he was dead because of a guilty conscience.
 
Third, perhaps it was someone pretending to be Inuyasha. But if so, who? And why would they do something like that? And is Inuyasha really dead? Or do they have him?
 
And fourth, if Inuyasha is dead, how did he die? Why did he die? Did he die just then or weeks, months before? And what will Kagome do in all the situations mentioned? 
 
It's up to you, it's your choice, chose wisely.
 
Wyltk