Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, my name would be Rumiko Takahashi and I would be able to draw. Neither is true.
Inuyasha's Battle and Kagome's Dream
Kagome was running through the forest, as fast as she could while carrying the rusty old katana version of the tetsusaiga. sango and Miroku were at her heels, following her, to where they didn't know. And neither did Kagome, really. But she new, somehow, that she had to find Inuyasha soon.
They were in the forest, and Kagome was desperately trying to locate him. She stopped running for a few seconds, hoping for signs of Inuyasha's whereabouts. Hearing nothing, she changed direction and started running again.
By some miraculous chance, she had gone the right way. There was a clearing up ahead, and Inuyasha seemed to be readying for an attack. Kagome could not yet see his opponent through the trees. However, that adversary became visable quickly, rushing at the hanyou. It was Sesshomaru.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome ran faster, though it hardly seemed possible. Without the tetsusaiga, she knew it was pointless to battle Sesshomaru and hope to win.
She ran into the clearing, right in Sesshomaru's path, throwing the sword to Inuyasha. Kagome looked around, to see Sesshomaru, who was still rushing forward. She had no energy to move away. She collapses onto the ground, and covered her face with her arms. He was fifteen feet away now, and ready to ruthlessly slash through her flesh with his claws. Just ten more feet...
'Why isn't she running?! He's going to kill her unless I save her...'
"KAGOME!" Inuyasha pulled tetsusaiga from it's scabbard, and it transformed as he leapt into the rapidly closing distance between the girl and Sesshomaru, just in time to defend one from the other.
Sesshomaru, seeing the deadly fang changed course, three feet away, just in time to avoid contact. He stopped running when he made it back to the end of the clearing, and partially-turned toward his half brother.
Kagome blinked. She had been prepared for pain, even death, and now she looked up to see Inuyasha kneeling beside her. Surprisingly, an expression of concern was on his face.
"Inu...yasha?" Hearing his name, his expression morphed from unusual concern to an uncomfortably normal glare.
"You stupid girl! What the hell did you do that for?"
"Well excuse me for trying to help you!"
"Like I'd ever need help from a weakling ningen like you!"
"Weakling?!" Kagome was absolutely outraged.
"You heard me!"
"SIT!!" The utterance of the subduing spell let Kagome try to get back on her feet, as Inuyasha's face met with the ground. Standing was short lived. Sango ran up and caught her collapsing friend, who was completely exhausted and had passed out.
"I guess fear and running that much can do that to a person...," sighed Miroku, helping support Kagome.
"Kirara!" Sango called, looking for her fire cat demon, who couldn't be too far away. The kitten appeared, out of the trees, having followed the humans. "Will you take Kagome back to Kaede's? She needs some rest."
The tiny kitten mewed her agreement, before turning into her large, two tailed, demon form. Sango and Miroku helped Kagome onto Kirara's back, and then turned to Inuyasha. He was standing up, muttering angrily and glaring.
Sesshomaru had disappeared. The clearing was desolate of anyone but the two humans and one very disgrutled half demon.
"Inuyasha," Miroku started, moving to stand next to the hanyou. "What did Sesshomaru want?"
"I don't know. all he did was say something like what Kaede told us. That I had something to do with the power corruption or whatever."
"We'd best get back to the village then, and tell Kaede about it then."
"Whatever. You two can go back now," Inuyasha sheathed the tetsusaiga, watching it return to its state as a rusty katana. "I'll see you tomorrow morning." With that, he leapt up into the air, heading for his favorite tree to spend the night.
Sango and Miroku lookied after him for a moment. Inuyasha was hard to predict, and even harder to understand. 'He'll be back tomorrow,' resonated in both their minds as they trudged back to the village in silence.
The next morning, Kagome woke up in Kaede's hut. She didn't know where she was. Eyes popping open, sitting bolt upright, it took her a few seconds to register her surroundings. Then, the memories flooded back. Running through the forest; seeing Sesshomaru running toward her; Inuyasha jumping into protect her; Inuyasha scolding her; sitting him.... 'At least there's nothing strange about that.'
After getting out of bed and changing her clothes, Kagome headed out of the room in search of Sango. The taji'ya was out in the main room with Kaede, Miroku, and Shippo, the latter two of which were busy with preparations for another jewel shard hunt. Kagome went to help Sango with the straps of Hiraikotsu, the boomerang made from demons' bones.
Then it took the combined efforts of Miroku, Sango and Kagome to get the humongous yellow backpack out onto the bicycle outside. Finally, with Shippo in the bike basket, there was only one thing missing fromteh troop. Inuyasha. They left Kaede's hut, its owner frowning after them worriedly.
Kagome rode her bike out to Inuyasha's tree. He was on a high branch as usual, arms crossed and (she suspected) brows furrowed.
"Inuyasha, come down here!"
"Why should I?!"
"You did say you'd be ready today, Inuyasha."
"Stay out of it bouzo! This is between me and that stupid girl!"
"Don't you wanna look for more shards?"
"Of course, but we'll go when I'm good and ready."
"And when is that going to be?!"
"I don't know yet."
"FINE! Then we're leaving without you! You can catch up when you're 'good and ready'!" Kagome mounted the bicycle and began riding away, Miroku and Sango following her.
"WHAT?!!!" Inuyasha leapt down to where Kagome had stopped her bike, a smug expression on her face. "YOU STUPID GIRL!!!"
"SIT!" the familiar pink light gathered around the rosary beads, right before the crash.
Their newest journey was off to a normal start. Kagome was walking her bicycle through the forest, talking animatedly to Shippo and Sango, and occaisionally looking in Inuyasha's direction. She sighed. Though he was talking to Miroku fairly normally, he was still scowling.
Later that night, when they'd stopped and prepared camp, there was an uncomfortable air of tension. Inuyasha hadn't spoken to Kagome since the morning, and since he had also bullied Shippo during lunch, she was not inclined to apologize. They'd passed by a village teeming with young girls, much to the delight of Miroku and Sango, who had slapped and banged him over the head with Hiraikotsu as soon as they left. To top it all off, Shippo had been scolding Inuyasha, and the already infuriated hanyou was took out his anger on the little kitsune. After being thrown to the ground for the second time in one day, Shippo clung to Kagome, complaining loudly while her patience wore thinner and thinner.
All in all, it was not a peaceful group that lay sleeping. Inuyasha took refuge in a new by tree, with the three humans arranged around the fire below. Dreams slowly encompasses them all, fitful or pleasant. The night wore on, with the waning gibbous moon overhead. Silence ruled the forest, occaisionally broken by bird calls or sleepers' murmurings.
****Kagome was in her sleeping bag, unable to sleep. She was thinking about the last two days, looking up at Inuyasha, lying still in the branch above her. She rolled over, trying to get more comfortable.
When he was mad, he usually didn't hold grudges. Inuyasha's complete silence was something different. It confused and troubled her, all at once. 'He must really be angry with me...and I don't know why.' That hurt her most of all, she couldn't stand having him angry at her, and not telling her why.
"I'm sorry, Inuyasha," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes as she thought about it more and more. The tears rolled down her pale cheeks, splashing silently into the grass. He wouldn't hear her, so...
"Kagome?" To her great astonishment, his voice reached her ears, unusually gently.
Inuyahsa's words had hardly faded as he jumped down, landing right beside her sleeping bag without making a sound.
Kagome sad up, leaning her back against the tree and hugging her knees. Inuyasha's eyes, like molten amber, were staring into her dark stormy ones, which still produced the tears cascading down her face.
"Inuyasha, why are you so angry with me? What did I do?"
"I'm not angry with you...not now. And please don't cry, you know I can't stand it."
"I can't stop it. And you were angry, why?"
"Because you acted like you hated me," he turned away, so that she wouldn't see the tears welling up in his eyes. He wasn't quite fast enough.
Seeing those tears struck her like she'd expected Sesshomaru's attack to, ripping her heart to pieces. "I don't hate you...it's just...sometimes you...and I..."
"All my life, people have hated me, Kagome. Because of what I was. Who I was. Who I am. You were the first person who didn't seem to, and then...," his voice was hollow and monotone, slightly cracking with unshed tears.
"Oh, Inuyasha, I'm sorry!" Kagome got completely out of her sleeping bag and hugged him. Surprisingly, he let her. And even more surprisingly, he hugged her back.
They just stayed like that, and the words "I'm sorry," escaped from both their mouths, softly and sincerely. So they didn't need to move, and they didn't, save only Kagome shifting so that she was leaning agains his chest, her head tucked underneath his chin.
Inuyasha kept his arms wrapped around her, firmly, but not tightly. The peace of the night enveloped them, in a kind of concious trance, eyes focused on the stars, glittering ethereally in the heavens above.
All at once, the peace and tranquility were gone, replaced by a violent havoc. Sesshomaru, with Rin and Jaken, Koga and his pack reborn, they were all rushing at them. Naraku, accompanied by Kohaku, Kagura and Kanna. Kagome couldn't figure out how Sango or Miroku or Shippo could sleep through the death threats that filled the air. More demons appeared, some that should be long dead. Why didn't they wake?
Suddenly, all three sat up, zombie-like. Then, they lurched into the air, 'It looks like they're being controlled by...but it couldn't be!' It was. Yura of the Hair was there too. Somehow, she'd appeared. So had any enemy either had had. Kikyo and Mistress Centipede, even humans from Inuyasha's childhood village were present.
It was Kagome's worse nightmare, happening right before her eyes. ****
A/N:
Well here's another looooooong chapter that it took me a few hours to type up. I really appreciate the reviews I got, all two of them. The only reason I haven't already uploaded this chapter is that I'm too lazy for my own good, not to mention health. So here it is. And here's the author's note, complete with vocabulary and review responces:
"blah": talking, physical speech
'blah': thoughts, mental speech
****blah****: dream sequence
if talking or thinking occurs during a dream sequence, italics and normal font will be reversed.
*/|\*: scene change or flashback or time change
GLOSSARY:
katana: basically, a sword
hanyou: half demon
youkai: demon
ningen: human (according to a demon, this is a bad thing)
Now for some review responces:
Inuyasha Lover: Well, I certainly hope you find it interesting to keep reading it.
Itachi: Yes, it is a good title, isn't it? Took me a while to come up with one though, I tell ya. And thankies about the disclaimer...I kinda forgot...
That's all, so please read and review!!! I love you forever!!! I'll give you a cookie!!! (please note, that means cyber cookies)
--*Elyndewen Startree*
