Author's Note: As I predicted, this will NOT be the final chapter of Life's Little Imperfections. Work has been crazy, inspiration at an all time low over break, and I have been sick twice (still sick now). There will be one more after this chapter I promise for sure! I am just having issues with keeping everyone in character, that and I know where I want to go but I am having trouble getting there. Never fear though, I am working on this! I just wanted to put what I had written down so far so that I didn't keep you in suspense for too long!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inuyasha or any characters affiliated with the series. I am simply borrowing the characters for the duration of this story.


Life's Little Imperfections

By LadySword04

January 1-17, 2005


Previously on LLI:

"Oh man! Inuyasha is going to KILL me! I am more than a day late, and it's already dark outside. I just hope I don't run into anything dangerous tonight before I can get to the hut! Maybe I can slip in unnoticed. . .Nah, Inuyasha would smell then hear me for sure. . .maybe I should come back tomorrow morning super early then." Kagome thought out loud.

It was at this point in time when our favorite miko heard then saw something that made her freeze in her tracks, her blood run cold, and the air in her lungs escape in one big rush.


Chapter Five: Explanations in the Moonlight

Her ears picked up a sound that was emanating from the forest slightly off to her left. To be more specific, the sound was in fact a feral growling followed by an oddly familiar voice murmuring words she couldn't clearly decipher. Curiosity peaked, she silently began creeping toward the source of the noise.

At this point in time, Kagome noticed the glimmer of something metallic as the light of the moon reflected off the object's shiny surface. Looking more closely at the shape, Kagome noticed the sliver of light was in fact bouncing off of a sword.

Becoming increasingly horrified that she was going to be attacked at any given moment, she froze once again and looked on expecting to see whatever that thing out there would do. Would it charge and then attack her? Could she sneak by without detection? Would Inuyasha come to save her in time? Only time could give her an answer.

Waiting for the inevitable, Kagome braced herself for whatever the creature could throw at her. All the while, she was wondering both where Inuyasha was, and if he would save her in time. Time itself seemed to stretch on forever as Kagome waited with uncertainty for her fate. That minute and a half seemed to last for an eternity as she squeezed her eyes shut, and only after this span of time had lapsed, Kagome realized she had yet to feel a sword or claws slice into her flesh. Taking in a steadying breath, the miko opened her eyes to see the form in the same position it had been.

Being an opportunist, she quickly began backing away from the creature a few paces before turning around and walking away from the being; however, she did look over her shoulder every few steps to make sure the being was not following her. By the second time she turned around though, she noticed a few things that let her know just who was wielding that sword.

From her position earlier, he was hidden by the foliage where the moon's beams could not reach. But her current location allowed her to see him clearly, color included.

Amber eyes were downcast, white fuzzy ears that so resembled those of a Samoyed were trained on her, and prayer beads were resting on shoulders clad in red fabric. Frozen once more with the realization and the accompanying shock, it took Kagome a moment to register that the crouching form was none other than Inuyasha. Without thinking, she gracefully moved closer to his hiding spot.

When she was fifteen feet away, she began hearing what he was mumbling to himself. So caught up in his task and the thought that he was well concealed, only one of his ears focused on her; every other detail was ignored.

"I am going to do this. Kagome isn't back yet to stop me. I am going to deal with my problem, and end this right now. . ." Was all Kagome could hear before he trailed off once more.

Closing his eyes and emitting a heavy sigh, he began raising Sango's sword above his head.

That's when reality came crashing down along with the magnitude of the situation. 'Oh my Kami, he's turned the blade on himself! Please, Please whatever Kami is listening, don't let him do whatever he's been planning before I can get to him! I've got to stop him before he can go through with this!'

With that, Kagome screamed as she began closing the distance between where she stood and where he sat. "Inuyasha! Please STOP! Don't do it!" She shrieked as tears began forming in her eyes. At that time, the sword had begun its swift descent to its destination; his left ear.

The smell of her tears reached his senses first and succeeded in pulling him out of his stupor. That's when her scent and her voice reached him as well. Shocked beyond belief that he had been caught off guard, Inuyasha lowered the sword and turned wide orbs of amber on her as she ran toward him.

Realizing that she probably thought he was trying to kill himself brought out two specific emotions immediately. The first was confusion as he raised his eyes to see her. 'Why would she think that I would kill myself not to mention, why would she even care? I'm nothing but a worthless hanyou!' He thought bitterly before his confusion was quickly drowned out by anger at her intrusion.

But before he could react, Kagome had reached him, knelt down facing him and off to his side, before throwing her arms around his neck in a crushing hug as she continued to sob into his haori. His grip on the sword loosened to the point that the soft but definitely metallic sound of the sword hitting the soft grass could be heard.

Task and sword completely forgotten for the time being, he focused on Kagome and yet again felt terrible about being the cause of her tears. In a voice softer than normal he asked, "Hey, why are you crying? I wasn't gonna kill myself stupid. And you know I hate it when you cry. Knock it off will ya'?"

To his response Kagome composed herself as she dried her tears. Once that was accomplished, she then felt the need to justify her actions as he obviously misread her; then and only then would she allow her anger to surface at being made fun of.

"I didn't think you were going to kill yourself! It simply scared me to see you with a blade in your hands that you then turned on yourself! You know I hate it when one of my friends, including YOU, get hurt."

Ignoring her comment for the time being, he simply listened to the tone of her voice as he thought, 'I know she's gonna' get angry with me which will lead to an argument, which leads to me being sat, and then her going home. I don't feel like arguing right now or getting sat, and all of us are tired of waiting around for her to return so we can find jewel shards. I swear one more day in the hut will kill me.'

But Inuyasha cut her off before she had a chance to finish her comment then come up with another insult. "Since when have you cared what I do anyway? You're not my mother." He stated in an almost hollow voice.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that this discussion was deteriorating into an argument that would inevitably turn ugly, Kagome decided to swallow her anger and show more of her softer and concerned side. 'Kill him with kindness as mom always says. Besides, if I act this way it will confuse the heck out of him and I may be able to find out what exactly he was doing before he puts up his defenses that have served as his coping mechanism for most of his life.

In a calm and soothing voice she began, "I may not be your mother, but you are one of my closest friends Inuyasha, and as such I have always and will always care and worry about what you do. Why do you think I get so concerned about you when all of us fight demons together and on the rare occasion when you get injured? If I didn't care, I wouldn't get mad and 's-i-t' you when you said something rude. If I didn't care I would constantly forget your ramen. If I didn't care I wouldn't come back to you to constantly see if everyone was doing well. And if I didn't care I wouldn't have started crying or screamed at you to stop all those times before and just now, let alone be here in this moment talking civilly to you."

"Feh. Yeah right! You only come back constantly cuz you know I would come to get you and drag you back if I had to. Plus, it's your fault that the jewel broke in the first place so it's your responsibility to help me find the jewel shards. And you only care cuz I'm the only one strong enough to save you when you get in trouble, let alone defeat any demon with a shard. Without ME you couldn't do nothin' and you know it."

"Be that as it may Inuyasha, those aren't the only reasons I come back. But I also know that you couldn't find the shards at all without me. You said it yourself that it would take you twice as long if at all to gather them, and think of all the ones Naraku could get a hold of in the extra time it would take you to gather just one shard. I'm not here to argue with you though. What exactly were you doing with that sword?"

"None of your business wench," was his curt reply, "and besides, I don't got to answer to you anyway."

Standing and brushing herself off before she began walking back to the hut, she tossed "Fair enough" over her shoulder.

However, that was before she noticed something about his left ear; it had been bleeding, not a lot mind you, but it was enough to turn the hair in the surrounding area red as it seeped from the wound.

Putting two and two together, Kagome spun around to face him once more before she gently asked, "Inuyasha, you were trying to cut your ears off weren't you?"

"What's it to you?" He defensively spat.

"You're bleeding. Stay right there. I'll be right back." With that, she rummaged through her bag until she got her first aid kit. Armed with antiseptic, telfa pads (a non-stick wound dressing), and bandages Kagome once again knelt by his side to begin cleaning his self inflicted injury.

And it was at this point in time where suppressed tempers were wearing their restraints to the breaking point; both got the impending sense of doom that alerted them that before long, heated words would begin flying.

To Be Continued


Personal Review Responses:

Valese: Thanks again for brainstorming with me over IM! You were partly right about her finding IY…go you!! I know, he had to get the sword some time…couldn't torture him forever ne? I myself wonder what he would look like without his ears…though I bet half of his fans wouldn't like him half as much without them! Hope to see you for the concluding chapter!

GoldAngel2: Oh that makes me happy that I was convincing enough to be able to make you think this story was taking another twist…I thought it would be interesting to throw the tainted shard in to add some action to the story where I felt action was lacking! Thanks so much for reviewing me and I hope to see you next chapter as well!

Until next time,

LadySword04