!SCHOOL STARTS NEXT MONDAY!
And unless I finish Chapter Ten this week (highly unlikely) I will not post again until I get time.
Please, be patient. (Tho the more reviews, the more likely I am to be motivated to post quicker...)
I upped the rating to PG-13 for future elements, and I also felt it needed a little more discretion. Due to Kagome's little...habit...
Wow! People reviewed right after I posted! This is awesome...
I GOT FIVE REVIEWS! THAT'S THE MOST I'VE GOTTEN OUT OF A CHAPTER! I LOVE YOU GUYS!
All Kikyo-haters (or if you just dislike her a little) Um...be prepared to want to, like, strangle her or something...maybe...(If you didn't last chapter anyway...--stares pointedly at Pline--)
There's a chance you could hate her more, is what I'm saying. I do, and I'm writing it. I've determined I made Naraku like super evil incarnate or something...Who gives painkillers to a twelve-year old? That's so wrong...
Oh, and I'm aware Inuyasha cusses, and I make him cuss, but I will NOT under ANY circumstances use the "F" word. I absolutely despise that word. Or any curse word with the word God in front of it. I try to keep the curses to a minimal.
'Ships: Kagome/Inuyasha, Sango/Miroku
Chapter Title: A Secret Exposed
Chapter Teaser: You could hear the anguished shriek practically reverberate around the corridor as soon as she saw the coverShe was surprised Secret Agents didn't swoop down upon them, demanding to know what was the matter. "What the hell!" She said to herself, wondering where this cock-and-bull story had been developed...
Notes: "words"- means speaking; 'words'- means thinking; italics- emphasis on words
Dedication: To Inuyasha writers: Rozefire, Pline, and Rogue Pryde. So inspirational you are...
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Souta, Kouga, Sesshy, Naraku, Kikyo or anybody else in this from the anime Inuyasha that I have portrayed in this fic of mine and am too sleepy to think up a witty way to say it. There. Happy!
Chapter Nine: A Secret Exposed
--One Day Later--
"Sango! Miroku!"
The two people in question looked up from their guard duty to see a worried-looking hanyou running towards them.
"Did you finally get somewhere?" Miroku asked, referring to Kagome.
Inuyasha shook his head and waved his hand around, brushing that subject away.
"Not now, you lech."
"What is it?" Sango asked anxiously, seeing the look on Inuyasha's face.
"It's about Kagome..." He said, looking at the two, who exchanged a nervous glance. He paused a moment before continuing, wondering if he was doing the right thing. "About those scars on her arms... You guys know what happened to her, don't you?" Inuyasha waited on a reply, but he wasn't quite ready for what he would hear.
"Kagome, she..."
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Kikyo was (sadistically) pleased with her handiwork.
She looked at the cover of The National Enquirer and smirked widely.
(Don't look at me...my mom gets all those tabloids...)
There, plastered all over the front page, in it's entirety, was Plan B.
Last night, she had gone to a drug deal at a biker club. There, she had pantomimed taking some of the substances, which happened to include marijuana and cocaine, while Kouga took hidden candid shots of her. Blurry candid shots, enough to make people believe that it was not Kikyo, but someone who looked similar to her.
In a way, they had framed Kagome. This was much, much worse than the painkillers, which they still had no idea about anyway. These were illegal drugs. Illegal drugs that the (roughly) thousands of people who read that magazine would believe that Kagome Higurashi had taken.
Good things never lasted...
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"SHE DOES WHAT!" Inuyasha yelped, staring wide-eyed and incredulously at Sango and Miroku. Sango opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words, so Miroku took over.
"She, you know, cuts herself. When the stress is too much for her, she takes it out on herself. It's like her own cruel brand of punishment." Miroku said, averting Inuyasha's gaze.
"Dammit! I knew those looked like Luke's!" He shifted his wide-eyed gaze to Miroku. "You remember Luke, right?"
Miroku spoke slowly, "Yeah. He'd cut himself and brag about it... He killed himself last year..."
Silence... Until Sango broke it.
"Inuyasha." Sango breathed, finding her voice as the tears started in her eyes. "She loves you. She loves you. But she thinks so little of herself. She said everything would be much better for you if you'd never met her. She said that you deserved better. But she said everything was instantly better for her when she met you. You make her happy. Truly happy." There was no stopping the tears now, and Sango buried her head in Miroku's shoulder. Inuyasha didn't understand why Sango could get this upset. Well, she was a girl. Unless...
"Oh God." Inuyasha whispered in realization. "You. You don't think that I'm...the reason that she...?" Miroku gingerly lifted Sango off of him, stepped forward, grabbed Inuyasha by the shoulders, and shook him. "You are not why she's doing that to herself. Naraku is. God knows you have helped her, far more than Sango or I could."
"Naraku?" He struggled to think...Where had he heard that name before? Something clicked, and Inuyasha was furious. (He has more mood swings than women.)
"Him! He's the one! He gave Kagome those damn painkillers!"
Sango looked at him in surprise. "She- She told you about that?"
Inuyasha nodded, not liking this "Naraku" very much.
"Who is he anyway? She didn't tell me." Inuyasha asked them, and they shared a look.
One of those annoyingly superior, 'Don't tell me he doesn't know' looks.
"He's the Vice President, Inuyasha..." Sango replied, stressing the words and vaguely wondering why he didn't know that. "Obviously, you don't pay attention to politics..."
"Feh." Was the reply.
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A frenzied White House cook rushed to the Rose Room, something balled up in her fist, and banged on the door. Hard. She had to get in there. Miss Kagome had to know of this straight away! She yelled, her voice hinting that of a thick French accent.
"Kagome! Madame Kagome!"
The door clicked, signaling a lock being unlocked and a confused Kagome stood at the entryway. "What's wrong Chloe?" The cook looked alarmed and was clutching what looked like a rolled-up magazine in her hand. Still puzzled, she waited as Chloe unfurled the magazine and held it in front of Kagome's face. "Ziz, Madame Kagome! Zee 'orrible lies zey spread!" The words National Enquirer flashed before Kagome's puzzled expression, until she looked down the page.
"OH MY GOD!"
You could hear the anguished shriek practically reverberate around the corridor as soon as she saw the coverShe was surprised Secret Agents didn't swoop down upon them, demanding to know what was the matter. "What the hell!" She said to herself, wondering where this cock-and-bull story had been developed...
"Madame Kagome, whatever shall we do about zis? Zis obviously a fib. No such zing could occur. It would be anuzzer presee-denshul scandal...Somezing zey made up, zey have to know zis is unacceptable!" Chloe was enraged, pacing back and forth, occasionally muttering a string of fluent French. Words, Kagome was sure, should not be translated.
"Chloe," Kagome said weakly, "Go. Go back downstairs. I will deal with this."
"But Madame..."
"GO!"
Chloe gave a startled look, like a deer caught in the headlights, and then hurriedly left the room, snapping the door shut behind her. Kagome heard distant, yet frantic French muttering.
Kagome walked backward in a daze and her legs hit her mattress. Tripping backwards, she fell flat on her back, her hair askew, staring at the headline. "First Daughter's Drug Bust! Higurashi High on Trouble!" The picture was blurry, you could hardly tell it was her.
'What am I saying?' Kagome mentally screamed. 'It's NOT me! How many people are going to believe this?'
Almost immediately another string of thoughts followed that one.
Had he been the one to tell this...this... lie? Was this a publicity stunt? Cocaine? Who hated her enough to disrupt her father's presidency? Easy. Naraku.
But the one thing that bothered her the most, the one thought that would not go away...Had she done the wrong thing by telling Inuyasha? Did he think that if he made it illegal drugs as opposed to painkillers that it would be juicier? He was the other candidate's son after all...
"Damn it. Why can't I catch a break?" She sighed.
She sat up on her bed, furiously tossing that stupid tabloid to the side.
Time for some stress relief. She headed to the bathroom.
"A little sharp, a little dull. To a dreamless sleep one day I will lull." She whispered to herself, bringing a shiny blade to her arm once again.
Will the madness never cease?
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"Sessho-maruu..." Naraku's voice had a sinister, yet agitated, sing-song tone to it as he spoke into the receiver of his mobile flip phone. He was leaning back in his rolling leather chair, his high-dollar loafer-clad feet propped upon his polished desk. The voice on the other end was muffled as it replied and Naraku leaned forward, slapping his hand on his desk.
"NO! I don't care if your stupid half-brother never leaves her side! Kill them both if you must! You could say he attacked her and she attacked him back in self-defense!"
The voice said something incoherent to anyone except Naraku.
"No," Naraku's voice dripped with sarcasm, "I want you to walk her through it, tell her 'It isn't going to hurt one bit!' I want you to--"
Looking around carefully, Naraku lowered his voice, hissing into the phone. "I want you to kill her the way we planned. Typical assassination-like. You shoot her, and anyone else who bears witness."
"E..en..Inu...ahs...uh?" The voice replied, his cell phone obviously breaking up.
"Especially Inuyasha. Are we clear?" Naraku waited for an answer, and when he got one, he said, "Good, now get with it." He slammed his flip phone shut and threw it violently across his desk.
"You better not screw this up, pretty boy..." Naraku growled to no one in particular.
- - -
"Even Inuyasha?" Sesshomaru asked boringly, even though his cell was slowly losing service. Naraku's angry voice generated through the static and Sesshomaru rolled his eyes, mumbled an "OK" and hung up on him.
Damn, this was going to put a damper in his photo shoot with thatforeign model...
Sighing heavily, he stood, adjusted his "fluffy", what the hopeless fangirls he had called it. (stares pointedly at quite a few, erm, enthusiastic Sesshy fans...), and walked out the door. A gun was sitting in a holster on his belt, carefully hidden by his fluffy. "Time to finish this meaningless task..." He sighed.
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Inuyasha's mind seared with the Vice President's name; a strong hatred rising in him like a tidal wave. Sango remained clinging to Miroku, no longer crying as hard as she was, but tears coursed down her cheeks all the same. And Miroku, acting slightly less-perverted, comforted Sango. Inuyasha just stood there, clenching his fists so tight that his claws drew blood. They stood together like that for only a few moments, but it seemed like forever.
Sango broke away from Miroku and turned to Inuyasha, "Inuyasha, there's," She looked to Miroku for confirmation and he nodded. "There's something you should know..." Miroku finished for her. Sango took a deep breath and said, "Kagome--"
But her sentence was cut off abruptly by an angry cry of "INUYASHA!"
Sango looked over the hanyou's shoulder and finished her sentence differently than intended, "Er...right behind you...?"
Before he even had time to turn around fully, he was slapped against the side of his head with such force that he stumbled backward into Miroku. There stood Kagome, hand raised, anger etched all over her face, in an uncanny resemblance to Sango after Miroku did something perverted. She seemed to be clutching a magazine or something in her hand. Sango noted that there was a fresh cut on her arm, and she looked down. No, there was more than one...
"What was that for?" Inuyasha asked, placing a hand over his aching head. It felt as if he had been hit with a hammer. 'God, that woman hits hard. Now I know how Miroku feels.' He thought.
Kagome's eyes flashed and she unfurled the magazine and shoved it roughly into Inuyasha's chest, screamed, "THAT!" She glared at him for a moment then spoke again, her voice strained by tears, "What d'you think you're playing at?" She then turned on her heel, and stormed away. Inuyasha could already smell her tears, but before he could go after her, Sango picked up the paper. She swore loudly under her breath. Miroku looked over her shoulder and said, "Inuyasha, you wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you?"
Inuyasha grabbed the magazine and looked down at the cover. Even with the picture blurry, he could tell that that wasn't Kagome. It was someone bearing a striking resemblance to her. 'Crap...Kikyo...'
"Why does she think I did it?" He asked.
"You were the only one she told besides us. And besides...it's happened before..."
Inuyasha turned to face Miroku. "What do you m-" He broke off, an unpleasant scent filling the air. His ears twitched as he heard a sound. It was a deft metal click. His brow furrowed...What was that noise? He'd heard it before...
"Inuyasha?" Miroku interjected loudly, breaking the hanyou's concentration.
"Shh!" Inuyasha hissed.
"What?" Sango asked distractedly, wondering if Kagome was going to be okay.
"Just listen!" He said hoarsely. He prayed he was wrong...That the sound was something else, but soon, they heard it. And he had been right. The metal click was the sound of a gun being cocked. Because it followed with the unmistakable sound of gunfire.
Followed by a heart-stopping scream...
Update coming as soon as its finished...
Please review!
Wow! I got reviews, like right after I posted the last chapter! You guys have no idea how happy that made me! I had more reviews in two days for Chapter 8 than I had at all for Chapter Seven! OMG! YOU GUYS ROCK!
--dances gleefully around room-- then --thinks about all the evilnessthat will occur due to her cliffie-- Uh oh... --runs--
REVIEWS:
InuGoddess: Hello again! Seriousness, yes. Kouga was created, well, the way he was, to be some major comic relief...especially since this fic gets slightly more darker as we progress. Dangerous situations, (especially in fanfiction and movies) always make me anxious for the character's well-being. Of course she'll find love in Inuyasha...it wouldn't be a good fic (in my eyes) if she didn't! must...stop...giving...away...plot!
I understand it is upsetting, bear in mind, the genre is Angst. :) I went through it once before too, that was what inspired me to write this the way I have. (If you look in my bio, I explain my affinity for angsty stories) It might sound corny, but I think what has really helped me is If you would have asked me last year, during the ninth grade, what was the best thing about it, I would say, "I found this awesome site called fanfiction dot net" It was like a sanctuary for me. Still is. Anyway, you're welcome!
kokoro: Awesome! New reviewer! I'm glad you like it! Yes, Naraku was spawned from the depths of hell...So was Kikyo...She's not pure evil in my fic, but she's pretty ruthless...
myinuyasha04: I love your name! Did I say that yet? I made Naraku extra evil... See? Inuyasha didn't tell, but Kagome thinks he did. And if you're going to smack anyone, smack Kikyo! It would make me veery happy... Inuyasha's slow...we know this, lol. Oh, it's gonna keep going, I have too much fun writing it to stop!
Hotspringchick: I'm so glad you LOVE MY STORY! Another new reviewer! I wrote this as quickly as I could (not counting the fact I had half of it done when I posted Ch. 8) and as action-packed as I could. Cept, I get a bad feeling I'm gonna get killed for my cliffie...
Pline: I thought about replacing the W with a B, but I changed it last minute...As I've told you before, I don't like that word because of my stupid idiotic ex-boyfriend. --ahem-- Sorry. Yes, Naraku is evil...Last chapter you were running to kill him with Inu's Tetsusiaga that you stole! (In my odd little reviewer response world) How did that work out? Haha! I have other people telling me Kouga's hilarious and you telling me he's a dork. So he's a hilarious little dorky fruitcake who has a crush on Justin Timberlake. Yeah, good luck with that Kouga...(I'm still laughing over the "Britney's Competition"...I tend to crack myself up while writing this...) Go rot Kikyo! ROT!