The Giant Rat

Kazuki interrupted everyone's supper and dropped Kenshin on the floor of the hut they were staying in. He panted a few times. Even though Kazuki was somewhat muscular, but was definitely not capable of carrying a man half a mile. Well, he did…but you know what I mean.

"Hi…guys…" He panted.

Inuyasha growled and stood up knocking over his bowl of food. "What did you do?" He stomped over to Kazuki and pinned him to the frame of the doorway. "Tell me!"

Kazuki winced in pain. Then remembering he couldn't feel pain he scowled at Inuyasha. "If I hurt him why the hell would I bring him to you guys!" He smiled cockily. "I'm not some cat like you, I don't bring my prey back."

Inuyasha dropped him and was moments away from beating the living daylights out of him, but Sanosuke grabbed his fist. Inuyasha tried getting out of his grasp but the human was much stronger then he thought. Kagome rushed to the aid of Kenshin and sat him upright.

She sighed of relief, "Well, he's alive." She studied the new wound across his chest. "It didn't cut that deep…" She frowned at Kazuki. "Didn't Kenshin take you to go practice sword fighting?" She eyed him suspiciously.

Kazuki stood up and brushed himself off. He stared back at her, blinked, scratched his butt, straightened his shirt, and then fixed his hair. "No, we were hungry so I thought we would go grab a pizza or something then maybe head to the movies…"

"SIT BOY!"

Slam

"Not again!" She yelped.

Shippo looked at her funny, "That is the second time you've done that Kagome!"

She coughed and mumbled, "Third." She glared at Kazuki who was on the floor in yet another fit of giggles. She thought to herself, 'Maybe it was more…he sure does get on my nerves…'

He stopped laughing and sat up. He brushed himself off, did a hair flip to get hair out of his face, blinked, opened his mouth to speak, stopped, blinked again, looked around, scratched his head, blinked, scratched his butt, blinked again, then started talking, "Hey Kagome, aren't those reports due tomorrow?"

"Oh my gosh!" She squealed, "Let's go back tomorrow okay? Then we can come back after school."

He cleaned out his ear and studied his finger. "Whatever…"

Her eye-twitched. 'Why must he be so…so…so himself...' She thought.

Once again the night was uneventful. Miroku accidentally asked a married woman to bear his children. He stayed indoors the rest of the night. Kirara and Shippo once again amused themselves by playing with the village's children. Sango got stuck tending to Kenshin's wound…everyone else seemed to forget about the bleeding body on the hut floor…Sanosuke amused himself by watching Inuyasha and some drunk argue. He ended up having to separate it when the drunk said something about Inuyasha being a cat and his mother being a…never mind, gotta keep this PG-13. Kazuki and Meia chatted. Kagome could tell by the tinge of red in Meia's cheeks that Meia had developed a crush on Kazuki. It wasn't as obvious for Kazuki, but by the way he acted around Meia and directed all his attention towards her.

"How cute!" She said to herself. She looked back at her report. "To bad that they couldn't be together…Stupid time difference." She frowned at the paper in front of her. "Now where was I…?"

A certain wolf demon started running towards a certain village looking for his woman. He moved at lightening speed. Probably much faster then Kenshin, but with jewel shards…

Kazuki leaned against the wall of the hut. "I can't believe they're making us share a hut…" He groaned. Why did they put them together? Probably because Sango was taking care of Kenshin, so that took up one hut, Inuyasha was sleeping in a tree elsewhere, Miroku and Sanosuke got stuck sharing a hut, and then Shippo and Kirara were being adored by their many children fans. It's so tough to be adorable…

"Oh well, it's not that big of a deal…" Kagome said. She was sort of lying. Kazuki didn't like to sleep with his shirt on, and she just found out she didn't like him to sleep with his shirt on either. "I'm not tired are you?"

Kazuki stared at her blankly. His eyes seemed to be lackluster. He shook his head. "Sorry, I spaced. No, I'm not tired. I don't feel awake either…" He was swaying back and forth. "Is the room moving…" He was still looking at Kagome, but it was as if he wasn't seeing her. He hit himself on the head. "Whooh…that…was…odd…"

"Kazuki? Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. She sat next to him. "Kazuki? Can you hear me?"

"Ya…ya…I can hear you…" He held his head. "Ugh, I got a major headache." He blinked and for a second Kagome could swear his eyes were bright yellow. She continued to stare at him worriedly. He looked at her and smiled, "Once again, staring thing doesn't work."

"JERK!" She hit him on the shoulder. He laughed at her futile attack. He grabbed his pillow and hit her in the side. This started a huge pillow fight somehow. Just when they finished beating each other with pillows someone entered the hut and watched as they sat there panting and laughing.

"You…you…you touched my woman!" The wolf demon growled. He picked up Kazuki by the throat. "I should slit your throat right now."

"AGH!" He struggled to get free. He kicked his legs in midair.

Kagome grabbed Kouga's arm. "Kouga, put him down, he's a friend."

Kouga looked at her and held onto her hands. "Anything for you Kagome!"

"Thanks for dropping me…" Kazuki moaned as he rubbed his back. "I didn't know we were friends?"

Kagome stopped for a moment and looked at her feet. "Well…I know we kind of hate each other…but I thought we were friends…" She looked at Kouga. "What are you doing here? It's late!" She stopped when she saw Kouga sniffing Kazuki. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

He continued to sniff him. "He…" He took another whiff of him. "He smells like rodent?"

"Oro?" Kazuki eyes went wide.

"You came here to tell me that?" Kagome asked shocked.

"Eh?" He looked at her confused. "NO!" He smacked his forehead. His expression went serious and he kept eye contact with her. "I was wondering if you've seen Kagura lately. I keep looking for her, but she seems to be inactive."

Kagome shook her head. "No, we haven't." She stared at Kazuki who was busy sniffing his armpit.

"Well, is it okay if I go along with your group for awhile Kagome?" Kouga said. He was glaring at Kazuki. There was something odd about him.

"Sure Kouga…" Kagome laughed nervously. "Just please don't kill Inuyasha.

"Well!" Kazuki interrupted. "Now that's that settled…" He pushed Kouga out of the door. "GO FIND YOUR OWN DAMN HUT! I WANNA GET SOME SLEEP!"

Kouga grabbed onto the doorframe. "WHAT ABOUT KAGOME!" He shouted. Kazuki went passed Kouga and grabbed him by his tail. Kouga tightened his grip on the doorframe. "I WON'T ALLOW YOU TO SHARE A HUT WITH MY KAGOME!" Now Kazuki had a hold of Kouga's legs and he was tugging as hard as he could. "LET ME GO!"

After a long night of Kouga sleeping between him and Kagome, Kazuki was dead tired. Every time he went to sleep it felt as if he wasn't going to wake up, almost as if his mind was being pulled into darkness. Throughout the night he heard voices in his head. Telling him to kill them, kill them all. They were just bad dreams he kept telling himself. He hadn't had nightmares in over a year. Why would they start now…?

Sango had Kenshin bandaged up pretty well. He looked almost as good as new and he was his normal cheerful self. Kagome and Kazuki decided they would return home the next day and not worry about their reports.

Kouga glared at the other two new males that joined his Kagome's group. He spat at the ground. "Who are these two? More friends I'm assuming?"

Inuyasha stood between him and the two. "That's none of your business wolf!" He withdrew tetsuseiga and glowered.

"Enemies?" Sanosuke asked no one particular.

Shippo sighed as he sat on Kenshin's shoulder. "More like rivals…"

Sanosuke got a sly look on his face. "Oh! I see!" He snickered. "It's quite obvious…"

Kenshin shook his head. "Now Sanosuke…let's not make them mad…" He opened his eyes and Inuyasha was only a centimeter away. Kenshin looked at him nervously and held up his hands in defense.

"I have ears you know…" Inuyasha said angrily. He flicked Kenshin on the forehead and Kenshin fell over, more out of relief then anything. Inuyasha smiled satisfied. "Now…let's get going."

Meia ran out of one of the huts. She caught up with them and looked around at the group. "May I please go with? Please? I won't get in your way! Even for a little while? Please?" She was talking rather fast. Kagome smiled knowing the reason Meia wanted to spend a little time longer with the group, well, rather with a particular member of the group.

Kagome smiled and patted her on the back. "Of course! Just make sure not to get in the way of the fighting please." She continued to smile and giggle. "The more the merrier! But only for today okay?" Meia nodded and the group started their search.

"This is becoming rather bothersome…" Salali stated as she watched the group from afar. "More people means that Kazuki has more to get rid of…" She frowned. "I suppose I should send someone to dispose of them…" She lifted her pet rat in the air. "What do you say? Feel like a little killing today?" She smiled as the rat squeaked in response. "Good…" She took out a vile from a pouch she held at her side. "This should help…" She poured the red liquid into her hand. It had some swirls of green with it. She held it down to the rat and the rat drank it. "That should do it…" She watched as the rat grew in stature.

"So Kagome…what's the future really like?" Sanosuke asked. The midday was bright and warm. Kazuki felt like closing his eyes and just drifting away. He shook the thought out of his head and continued walking. Sanosuke looked at him oddly. "Anyways, I mean, what does the future hold for Japan?"

"Well…uh…" Kagome stuttered.

"Sanosuke," Kenshin interrupted. "The future is best not revealed that it is." He looked at him seriously. "We do not want to disrupt the time line. We probably already have already disturbed something just by traveling back and forth."

Kouga lifted his nose in the air and started sniffing. "Anyone smell that?" Before anyone could respond the ground started to shake beneath them. They all turned only to see a giant deformed rat demon charging straight at them. It had foam coming from the mouth and it's claws and teeth were about the size of swords.

"WHAT THE FU…HELL!" Kazuki shouted. "Meia! Go hide!" He ordered.

The demon let out a loud growl and it lunged at the closet one to it. Sanosuke jumped onto his head just as it lunged at him snapping its jaw shut. It shook violently to try and get the man of itself. Sanosuke held onto its ears for dear life. Inuyasha slashed at it with his sword and managed to take a chunk out of its shoulder. He gargled a scream. Blood splattered everywhere and it was like acid to anything it touched. Miroku looked up and still saw Sanosuke holding onto the demon. If he hadn't jumped onto it Miroku would've been able to use his wind tunnel. The demon went down for another bite and this time it aimed for a tree that Meia was hiding behind. Kazuki saw this and started sprinting. Once again he was going faster and faster then ever before. He saw Meia trembling and he pushed her out of the way just in time but consequently the demon had him in its jaws.

"KAZUKI!" Everyone shouted.

Sanosuke slid down to the tip of its nose and tried lifting up the demon's jaw. Kazuki lay unconscious inside the demon's mouth. Sanosuke's attempt to open its jaw was futile so he ran up to its forehead and struck as hard as he could. The demon dropped the boy and Sanosuke fell off when it lifted its head in pain. Kenshin managed to catch Kazuki before he hit the ground. Sanosuke landed on a large pink bubble that the group fondly refers to as Shippo. When Shippo reached the ground he transformed back and Sanosuke landed softly. Kenshin laid Kazuki gently against a tree and the two fighters brought their attention back to the demon. It finally started to ignore the pain and started to stomp its way over to the group yet again. Sango jumped on Kirara and they flew into the air. She threw her giant boomerang at it but it just bounced off of the creature. She caught it and looked at the group.

"Any ideas would be nice now!" She shouted down at them. She looked at Kagome who was tending to Kazuki. "Does it have a jewel shard?"

Kagome looked up in dismay. "That's the odd thing! It doesn't!"

Kouga charged at it. "Good! Then I guess I have the advantage!"

It lowered it heads trying to take a bite out of Kouga but Kouga jumped up then kicked the vile creature in the face. It did fall back but immediately it stood up again and charged again. Kouga went for it's gut this time but the outcome was still the same.

Kenshin shook his head, "We can't defeat it one on one." He got into a fighting stance. "We must strike all at once that we must!"

Miroku stood in front of the group. "Wait! I can just suck it into my wind tunnel!"

Sango was still on top of Kirara circling it. "ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED? It's way to big!" She warned him.

Shippo nodded. "If you did use your wind tunnel you would be sucked up along with it!"

Sanosuke interrupted them and growled, "Can't we just go with Kenshin's idea?" He looked up at the monster that was swooping its head down for another bite. "IT'S NOT GONNA WAIT FOR US TO MAKE A DECISION!" They all jumped out of the way. The monster now had a mouth full of dirt it spat it back down and growled. The monster saw Kazuki unintended and it smiled. He stomped over to him.

"KAZUKI!" Meia screamed. No one was close enough anymore to help him if anything happened and if Miroku tried using his wind tunnel he would suck up Kazuki as well.

The monster now was next to Kazuki and it swooped its head to yet again take him in his mouth. It stopped inches away from Kazuki went an arrow went into its back. It screamed in pain and it started glowing. The monster disintegrated and a normal rat appeared in midair. The rat fell to the ground and was immediately dead on impact. Kagome stood several feet away with another arrow ready. When the rat landed she ran over to Kazuki. The others gathered round She felt his pulse and sighed in relief.

Shippo looked at the rat and nearly puked. "What happened to it?"

Kouga walked up to the fox demon and studied the rat remains. "Why have I been smelling so much rodent lately?" He turned towards the group. "Have you guys noticed anything suspicious?"

"Not really." Sango stated.

Sanosuke lifted Kazuki's limp body into his arms. "Let's go back to the village."

Next time on Inuyasha: While Kazuki is asleep the group worries about him. To help ease their minds they start talking about how they really feel about Kazuki. Everyone has their own opinion but they all are still worried, and maybe they should be. Next time on Inuyasha, The Calm Before the Storm. I hope he's okay…