Ninja: I don't own Inuyasha. And I guess you should thank Howerd, because I was actually planning on making the last chapter a cliffhanger. But he wouldn't let me. I mean it; this guy could make Jiminy Cricket feel guilty. And I guess it's a good thing I didn't, considering how long it took for me to update. Sorry about that. Hopefully, this is the start of a trend. Updating I mean. . . .
mlink-I read somewhere that Inuki meant puppy. It kind of fits with the whole Inu meaning dog. It also explains a bit why everyone could hardly believe the big, tired, wheezing dog was named Inuki. Tha's my reasoning anyway.
Ninja: And I would like to apologize ahead of time if a certain character is OOC. I'm trying my hardest not too.
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Chapter 7: More Trouble for Inuyasha!
After studying the map a little bit, Sango realized that they could go back to the fountain and work their way from there. A good starting point, and everyone agreed. They found the forest that surrounded the fountain, and decided to give Kirara some rest. With Sango leading the way and Kagome bringing up the rear, they started to walk in the forest. But they didn't get far.
"Ouch!" Inuyasha said stepping back and looking at his foot. There was a long cut across his foot and it started to bleed.
"Inuyasha! What happened?" Kagome asked worriedly while getting out her medical kit.
"I don't know. I guess I just stepped on a sharp stone or something." About to lose his balance, Inuyasha sat down because he knew that Kagome would fuss more if he tried to fight her. And plus, it did hurt. . .just a little.
Kagome swabbed Inuyasha's cut with peroxide. She was about to put some bandage on, when she realized that she was out of bandaging. So, she improvised; wrapping his foot with her pink handkerchief.
"Why did you use that?!" Inuyasha demanded to know.
"Sorry, it's all I had. But just humor me and we'll get it changed as soon as I get more bandages."
"No matter. It will probably be gone by then. Remember, I may be smaller, but my body is still special."
Everyone sweatdropped at his word. Before anyone could reply, Inuyasha suddenly stood up and started to sniff around.
"I can't believe it. What the hell is he doing here?!"
Inuyasha ran off with everyone running after him.
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Inuyasha ran on a head and finally made it to the clearing of the fountain. And there he saw him.
Sesshomaru was standing at the water's edge, looking at his reflection. His nine year old reflection.
Sesshomaru quickly turned his head and glared at Inuyasha.
Inuyasha laughed. It wasn't everyday that he saw his older brother being smothered by his oversized cloths and almost encircled by his boa.
"Stop laughing."
Inuyasha ignored him. But maybe luckily for him, Sango and the others entered the clearing and saw the sight. They were a bit better at not laughing than Inuyasha was.
"You drank the water, didn't you?" Miroku guessed.
"Is that what caused this to happen?" Sesshomaru asked back instead of answering the obvious question.
"Yes. That's what happened to Inuyasha and me."
"How do you turn back?"
"Nice try Sesshomaru. What makes you think that we'll tell you?" Inuyasha asked, his laughter still evident on his face.
"You'll tell me, or I'll make sure all of you go through the worst pain of your pathetic lives."
"Sorry. You forgot to say please." Inuyasha scolded.
Sesshomaru was going to make a comeback, but was interrupted by two people calling for him in the bushes. Jaken stepped out.
"L-lord Sesshomaru! What happened to you?!" Jaken cried.
Right after Jaken ran up to his lord and started crying, Rin come out of the bushes.
"Who's the girl?" Miroku asked.
Rin looked at the group of people; then looked over at Jaken and Sesshomaru.
"Lord Sesshomaru! Are you okay?" Rin asked running over and standing next to Jaken.
Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and Kagome stared with their mouths open.
"Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?" Kagome asked.
"I never knew that Sesshomaru had such young taste. . . ."Miroku muttered.
Though he tried, Sango still heard him and it took all her might not to slap the young monk.
"Hey Sesshomaru, who's the girl? I thought you didn't care about humans." Inuyasha shouted.
Sesshomaru glared, "I don't. It's none of my business what she does."
"Doesn't look like that from over here." Inuyasha continued to tease.
Kagome knelt down and covered of Inuyasha's mouth, "Don't push it Inuyasha." she whispered in warning.
"As I said. It isn't any of my business what she or any other human does. Now tell me how to return to normal."
"Like we would tell you." Inuyasha said after getting out of Kagome's grip.
Rin looked at Lord Sesshomaru and then at Inuyasha and his group. She walked over to Kagome and Sango.
"Please help Lord Sesshomaru!" she begged.
Kagome couldn't get over how sweet Rin was and pulled Sango aside with Miroku.
Inuyasha continued to stare and chuckle at Sesshomaru, being careful to say the really awful taunts only in his head because of Kagome's warning.
"We have to help Sesshomaru turn back. For the girl's sake." Kagome said to Sango and Miroku.
"Indeed. Even though Sesshomaru is a very strong demon, he is now at half his strength at most. He might be able to protect himself, but I highly doubt that the girl would be safe with him." Miroku stated.
"What I wonder is, what she's doing with him in the first place. . . ." Sango commented.
"I don't know, but I don't this is the time to question about it. Especially if we're going to try and convince Sesshomaru to travel with us." Kagome advised.
Just thinking about Inuyasha's reaction to this plan made all three of them sweatdrop. Remembering Inuyasha, Kagome looked in his direction to see him still chuckling at Sesshomaru.
"Oh no. . . ." Kagome muttered. Miroku and Sango went over to Inuyasha tried to hush Inuyasha by covering his mouth. He was about to bite Miroku's hand, but when Kagome went past them and stood in front of Sesshomaru, he was a little shocked.
"Sesshomaru, we're on our way to try and find an herb that will hopefully turn them back. And we would like you to join us."
"WHAT?!" Inuyasha yelled after getting out of Miroku's grip.
"And why would I join you?" Sesshomaru said glaring at them all, especially at Inuyasha.
"Because we refuse to give tell you the herb that we're looking for. So you have to join us or you'll never know." Kagome said with her arms crossed.
"I'll tell you! It's--"
"Sit boy!" Kagome cried before Inuyasha could blurt it out.
"Listen, we can help each other. You want to turn back, like Inuyasha and Miroku. And the more of us there are, the better protection there is." Kagome finished looking directly at Rin through the corners of her eyes. Rin was staring at Inuyasha who just getting up from the ground.
Sesshomaru stared at everyone involved.
"Fine. I shall travel with you until it no longer suits my needs."
Inuyasha stared shocked at his brother.
"I can't believe you are going to let him come with us after all the damage he's caused us! Am I the only sane person around here?! If you want to travel with him, fine. But that doesn't mean I have to!" Inuyasha yelled before running away into the forest fuming mad.
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Earlier that day, Kouga had been running in search of any sign of jewel shards or Naraku. He had decided to travel alone so the search would go faster, but he had to admit that he was slightly lonely. Wolves weren't meant to be solitary creatures.
He was about to run past a forest, until he picked up a scent that he had engraved in his brain.
"Kagome, she's near by." He said to himself and started towards the forest.
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Kouga followed the scent to find not Kagome, but someone else.
It was a small boy. He looked a lot like Inuyasha. And he smelled like him too. But he also smelled like Kagome.
"What the hell is going on?! Why does that mutt look a like smell like both Inuyasha and Kagome?!" Kouga thought to himself.
That's when he thought of it. The most horrifying thing he could ever think of.
"He. . . .He can't be. . . .Kagome and Inuyasha's child! It's impossible! Kagome would never!!!"
Kouga tried to reassure himself that the young boy wasn't the child of his woman and some mutt, without much success.
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Inuyasha didn't run that far, but he was still angry at Kagome and the others.
"How could they invite him along. After all that he's done us?!" Inuyasha kept muttering under his breath. He was so focused on his anger, that he never realized that he was being watched. He barely noticed Kagome at first when she finally caught up to him.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked him.
"Why do you care, you have Sesshomaru with you know." Inuyasha answered mocking Kagome when Sesshomaru's name was mentioned.
"You don't understand, we had to ask him along. Please tell me you at least saw Rin."
"Who?"
"Rin, the little girl that was with Sesshomaru?"
"Oh, her. What about it?"
"If we had left them alone on their own, do you think Sesshomaru would be able to protect her?"
Inuyasha was about to yell back that he had no reason to care about the little girl, or what his brother could or could not do, when he and Kagome heard a stick crack as a wolf demon walked out from behind some bushes.
Right away, they noticed that Kouga had a determined look on his face, but when Kagome looked at his eyes, she saw a tiny waver of fear cross his eyes.
"Kagome, I demand that you tell me who the hell that is!" Kouga pointed at Inuyasha, anger now taking place of the fear.
"Kouga, what do you mean 'tell you who he is'?" Kagome asked confused. Couldn't he tell that it was Inuyasha?
"I mean, tell me if he is in fact Inuyasha's and your son!"