A Story of Hope

Author's Note- Not much to say, hope you guys are enjoying the story. I guess I'll reply to some reviews because I have some time.

Samurai Fish- Chapter 12 almost made you cry? Wow. I wasn't trying to make people cry. Should I appologize?

laughingstockstables- The thing that Miroku said is actually true. The idea is if you work for your food or make it yourself, you're proud of it, so it just tastes so much better. Tryit sometime.

Kiwi- Well I think that if Inuyasha and Kagome just got into a relationship like BAM it would be stupid. They've been friends for so long and we all know they like each other, but they still just can't get right into it. Doesn't make any sense. Okay. This was a very repetitive reply.

On an other note. I've gotten 3 emails like this now. They tell me how great this story is and then they ask me this question.

'Are you blind?'

To clear this up, no, I'm not blind.

The next morning Mirokudid one last thing. "I want to bless something in your house." he told Sato. "To keep the demon from returning to your house."

"Perhaps you will bless something in the garden." Sato suggested, "We spend the most time there. It would make sense."

He nodded. "Please show me to what you'd like to bless."

Sato led Miroku and the others towards the garden. They stopped in front of agreat old tree in the middle of the garden. The trunk had grown thick over the years and the branchs almost completely covered the sky of the garden, only letting in a soft amount of green light. Sato nodded his head towards the tree in a miniture prayer. "Please bless this tree."

"I will." Miroku answered. Touching the tree with one hand, Miroku murmured undeciferable words then placed a sutra on the tree, tapping it with his staff twice. "The tree has been blessed."

"Thank you very much." Anai said with a bow.

"Think nothing of it." Miroku replied shaking his head. "It is my job as a simple monk. But now my friends and I must take our leave and continue on our travels."

"Of course." Anai said nodding, "Here's your payment." She held out a small bag. Miroku took it and started counting the coins inside.

"What's the tree like, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha looked over at her in confusion. "Why would you want to know something like that? It's just a tree."

"If Sato wants the tree blessed it must be very important to him." she replied, "I just want to know what it looks like."

"Well it's big. And green."

"I was assuming that." Kagome retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Then why are you asking me about it!" he demanded.

"Because I want to know what it looks like!"

"It's not like you've never seen a tree before!"

Kagome glared at him. Or more like past him. "Put your hands over your eyes!" she told him.

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Inuyasha put his hands over his eyes quickly. Kagome was scary when she was angry. And failing to do what she said may end up with him planted in the ground with a particularly violent 'Sit' command.

"Did you cover your eyes?"

"Yes."

"Well that's what I see!" she told him, "Pitch black, night and day! How would you like to go through part of your life like that? You don't know where you're going! You have to rely on everyone to do even the simplest things! You can'tsee!" Kagome was on the verge of tears now. "I've spent over a week in complete darkness now. I bet you can't imagine that, can you? You've spent your life with the 'perfect vision' of a half demon! You can see anything you want perfectly whenever you want to! Day, night, it doesn't matter! And because of this you take it for granted! Now think about me! Just do it! To you, that tree in front of us is just some plain old boring tree. But to me, it's something wonderful in the world. Something I want to see! But I CAN'T!" She burst out sobbing.

"Kagome..." Inuyasha trailed off, not sure what to do. He hated when she cried.

"I'M NOT DONE!"

By then the whole garden was silent.

"So when I asked you to describe that tree, and you didn't take me seriously, it hurt. Do you understand that? It hurt!" She continued to cry, sitting down on the ground and bring her legs up to her chest, hiding her face.

Inuyasha watched her cry for a moment. She was suffering. Part of it wasn't his fault. He couldn't help it that she was blind. But he could have described the tree better. I had no idea it meant that much to her! He thought How could I have been so stupid?

Sitting down next to her he said something very rare. "I'm sorry."

She kept on crying.

Inuyasha sighed. "It's really big." he started, "The tree I mean. I'm guessing it's really old because the trunk's so thick. Maybe as thick as I am tall. Maybe thicker. The bark's really bumpy. It's not smooth at all. And there's a knot hole about three feet up on the side facing us. The leaves are so big that they're bigger than your hand. And the tree's so tall that I don't have anything to compare it with."

"Thanks Inuyasha." Kagome said smiling gently, lifting her head up from her knees.

"Whatever."he stood upand turned to the others. "Are we going now?"

"I guess." Sango replied.

Kagome stood up, stumbling a bit when Shippo jumped onto her shoulder unexpected. Inuyasha yanked him off. "Careful!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry." the kitsune said sheepishly.

The hanyou growled. "Let's go."

Anai and Sato gave their thanks one more time and led the group out of the house. Inuyasha pulled Kagome up onto his back and they started to walk out of the village. "Well that was definitely interesting." Kagome commented.

"Yes." Miroku agreed, "The demon inhabiting that house was extremely powerful for not having a shikon shard. It didn't have one, did it Kagome?"

"It better not have." Inuyasha grumbled.

"It didn't." Kagome assured, "It was just a plain old demon."

Inuyasha nodded. "It sounded like you guys were having some problems with killing the thing."

"A bit." Sango admitted, "But only for a short time."

"Sango helped me alot." Miroku agreed.

"I'm surprised she went off to help you willingly." Inuyasha commented, "I mean, If I was her I wouldn't have volunteered to be alone with you. It's just not safe."

"Miroku was too busy to do anything." Sango said, "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have gone off with him alone."

"Don't you trust me?" Miroku asked, obviously hurt.

"Not one bit."

"That hurts, my dear Sango."

"Oh shut up." Inuyasha said, "You brought it on yourself, groping every girl you set eyes on."

"That's not true!" Miroku insisted, "Only the pretty ones."

"That just makes you even worse." he grumbled.

They were out of the village now and at the top of a hill. "Look at that view." Sango said in awe. "You can see everything from here!"

"Yes." Miroku agreed, "Magnificancent."

Inuyasha eyed the Kagome on his back. She looked near tears again. "Why don't we keep on going? We're not going to find Naraku here."

"True." Miroku said nodding.

The group turned away from the village, intent on continuing their travels.

BOOM!

Inuyasha swerved around towards the village again. One house was ablaze.

"That's the house we were just at!" Shippo exclaimed.

Okay. I just want to say one thing. I had Miroku bless the tree for a reason. From what I've heard, there's an old twisted tree that survived the atomic bomb blast of Hiroshima even though it was very close to the blast. Miroku's blessings really do work!