Authors Note: No Inuyasha Characters belong to me! ZERO! SQUELCH! However… this story does belong to me! 100%!
^_^
Reviewers rock!
Um, I would give a shout-out to whoever anonymous is, but they are anonymous. Please put a screen name or something of some sort so I can get back to you, because it was your review that inspired me to write the next chapter… I thought no one was reading it.
Anyway, the usual thanks to Emeraldfire8… you rock Dana!!
And also to animeluvr8, don't worry, there will be more about the fight between the Higurashi's, it will all make sense eventually.
Now… here's the drill, we're getting better at it…
Step 1) I write a new chapter
Step 2) Loads of people come and read my new chapter
Step 3) The loads of people leave nice long reviews for me to get inspired by…
Even a short review is nice, for instance Anon's review, but please don't review this anonymously…
That is all… until next time, ciao.
Chapter Four
Enter The Wolf
Kouga-kun, come here, I have something for you.
I'm here, Kagome… what is it?
Kouga-kun… please come here, I have something for you.
I'm right here! What do you want?
Kouga-kun… where are you, Kouga-kun?
Damn it, woman! I'm right in front of you!
Kouga… Come here… I need you…
***
"Um… Kouga? Could you please let me go…?"
Kouga found himself being roughly shaken from his sleep by his friend and follower, Ginta. That's when he realized he had a strangle hold on Ginta's neck.
"Oh… sorry… Ginta."
"You were having that dream again, weren't you, Kouga?" Ginta massaged his bruised neck.
"Yeah… I really thought they would go away once I went to see Kagome, but I'm still having them."
"At least you don't need to sleep very often."
"That's just the thing… I'm falling asleep almost every time I close my eyes. It's starting to really worry me. If it keeps up, one of my enemies will catch me with my guard down, as you just did."
"Heh, well, I wouldn't say your guard was down," Ginta laughed as he gestured to his neck.
***
"Well, Inuyasha? We're ready to listen. Are you or are you not going to tell us what your dream was about?" Sango asked in an unusually tense voice as she watched Inuyasha fidget.
There's nothing worse than a fidgety hanyou. I have to stay on my guard. In case… that happens again… she thought to herself.
"I think… I'm fine. Never mind what happened earlier; we can go back now."
"Inuyasha, there's no point in lying about it. Besides, from the way Sango looks, you won't be fine in a few seconds unless you start talking," joked Miroku with a pleading look.
"Dammit… fine." Inuyasha exhaled in defeat and started. "Well, there were two dreams. Kagome was in both of them … and she was crying."
The horror of dreams began to set in again on Inuyasha; he reached to grab Tessaiga, but quickly restrained himself.
Sango noticed the move towards the sword and then commented, "And you went on a self-destructive rampage just because of two dreams with Kagome crying?"
"I wasn't finished!" he exclaimed. "But if you don't want to know the rest, that's fine with me!"
"Oh, calm down, both of you. Since when do I have to be the voice of reason? That job usually falls to you, Sango."
She laughed and eased up a bit.
This is Inuyasha… my friend. He's not going to try and kill us; that other Inuyasha is gone now, she reassured herself, gesturing apologetically for Inuyasha to continue.
"Keh. Well, anyway… in the first dream, Kagome eventually turned into Naraku…and I called out, yelling at him. I asked him what he did with Kagome… but…. he just stood there, smiling evilly. I thought… he'd killed her."
"And?"
"Then I woke up and went to talk to Kagome about it." Inuyasha was too embarrassed to tell them that he had been calling out for her in his sleep.
"Kouga was in the second dream," Inuyasha growled as he said the name of his rival, "and Kagome was with Kouga. Then he turned into Naraku, and he was too close to Kagome… and I attacked…" Again, Inuyasha was too embarrassed to mention that Kagome was holding Kouga, but he didn't think it was important anyway.
"Now really, Inuyasha, how hard was that?" Sango stated in the tone of a mother who'd just given her child medicine.
"Baka, how 'bout you tell us about your dreams, eh? 'How hard is that.' I'd bet your dreams are more interesting than mine anyway." Inuyasha pointed to Miroku. "They're probably chock full of that Houshi over there."
At that Sango blushed, but Inuyasha continued.
"Anyway, who asked you? I wanted Miroku to interpret my dream, not you."
***
"Ginta, tell the tribe I'm not to be disturbed for the rest of the day, and that includes you. If I need something, I'll send Hakkaku out to tell you. You're in charge of the tribe until I return."
With that, Kouga sealed the entrance to the rooms of the wolf pack's cave, leaving the whole tribe in the open area behind the waterfall.
"There has to be something here I haven't discovered yet," Kouga muttered to Hakkaku.
"Can I ask what we're looking for?"
"That's the problem. I'm not sure… something old left to me by my father."
Kouga and Hakkaku wandered around the inner chambers of the wolf den. The same
cave had once belonged to Kouga's sire, and his grandsire, and his sire's
grandsire, and so on. The den was far
older than the oldest of the youkai in Kouga's tribe. There were secrets to these chambers that spanned generations.
Kouga meant to find one.
"Kouga, there's nothing here. We've lived here for years and years. What could possibly be hidden?"
"Quit complaining. If you don't want to help, then leave."
They wandered farther and farther back into the den, which had now become more of a tunnel.
"This is the nursery, right?" asked Kouga, as he wondered why he never bothered to explore back here before.
"Yeah, and it's also a dead end. See, Kouga, I told you there's nothing here."
Kouga spun around, scaring Hakkaku.
"And I told you to quit complaining!" Kouga gave him a swift kick to reinforce his point. "I know there's something in here," Kouga murmured, inhaling quickly through his nose. "I can smell a different type of air."
Hakkaku sniffed as well and replied. "Yes, you're right, I can smell it too. I wonder why nobody has noticed it before."
"Of course I'm right, baka, and just think where we are. Who would be able to smell the faint odor of stale air in the nursery?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Now help me find the source."
The two wolf youkai scoured the nursery in search of the old air. After about an hour of looking, Kouga began to grow impatient.
"Where is it coming from?" he growled, angrily looking around the nursery yet another time.
"Let's give up. There's nothing here, Kouga."
"For the last time!" Kouga barked. "Quit! Complaining!" Kouga shoved Hakkaku into the nearest wall, and, to his great surprise, part of the wall gave way.
"See! There it is, and you were ready to quit," said Kouga triumphantly as he began to tear down the rest of the wall. Hakkaku followed suit and helped to clear the wall. In a few minutes the wall was completely down, and a new passage was exposed.
At the end of the passage was a stone door that had clearly been shut for years.
"You can go back now and tell the tribe they can come in. From here on I go alone. If I don't come out within a few days, then come look for me," said Kouga in such a somber tone that Hakkaku was scared. "Don't worry about me, I'll be back by tomorrow," he added, seeing his concern.
"Kouga… why are you doing all this? How did you even know this room was here? I'm going to have to tell the tribe something. They will worry."
"Tell them someone in a dream said to come here… that's all I can say."
***
"Well, I definitely don't think they were normal dreams if you could remember them so vividly," said Miroku in the scholarly tone he often used when he exorcised a house.
"Of course they weren't normal dreams… It was as if they were real. I could smell Kagome; I could feel Naraku's jyaki. I was there in the dreams," Inuyasha muttered, getting caught up in the emotion of his memories again.
It's so unusual for Inuyasha to show this much emotion. Those dreams must have been very painful to him, even more than he told us, thought Sango, wishing she had not been so aggressive towards Inuyasha earlier.
Miroku inhaled deeply, snapping Inuyasha's attention back to the present. Miroku declared, "Well, I don't really think the dreams are too much to worry about. They seem to be premonitions of a fight with Naraku, which we all expected would happen anyway, and all the rest of the dreams could easily just be results of a battle. Kagome crying, for instance: she could be injured, or one of us could be injured."
"Kagome! Injured! What do you mean that's not something to worry about?!?" barked Inuyasha defensively.
"Funny, I remember you saying earlier that you didn't care about Kagome," Inuyasha turned red, "and besides, I said not to worry. I didn't say not to think about it. We need to be prepared for the battle; we always need to be prepared, but worrying won't help anyone," Miroku concluded with a smug look.
"Now, I understand why you were frustrated, Inuyasha, but you can't let your frustration control you. You nearly killed yourself over there, and you almost killed us, too," said Sango in that motherly tone that drove Inuyasha crazy, but he chose to let it go this time.
"Feh. I know, you don't need to tell me that… It won't happen again, trust me."
"By the way, Inuyasha…how are you feeling? It's almost morning. Do you think we could head back now?"
Inuyasha stood up and stretched.
"Feeling? I'm feeling fine. I've been fully healed for about 4 hours now."
"Damn cocky daemons," muttered Sango loud enough so both boys would hear her, and they all laughed.
The three friends headed back towards Kaede-baba's village in much better spirits than they left.