Disclaimer: hmmm…me no own InuYasha. Sad!
InuYasha: Thank you god for lawyers.
Kagome: How do you even know what lawyers are?
InuYasha: I've been in a lot of Fanfics, Kagome. A lot.
La: You said that kind of suggestively.
InuYasha: Cool.
Shel: Alright, you're out of hand. InuYasha! (pulls out shiny nickel) (throws it in tall grass) FETCH!
InuYasha: …
Shel: It was shiny! Get it!
InuYasha: …
Shel: …just do it! OOC InuYasha rocks!
InuYasha: (sigh) Damn you're gonna pay for this. (goes to find nickel)
Shel: (whispers to Kagome) He doesn't even know what a nickel is.
Kagome: I taught you well.
Shel: Yeah. Oh and I should warn you, the rest of this fic is going to be kind of cheesy but not much and plenty romantic moments.
InuYasha: (pops out of tall grass) Huh!
Shel: You heard me! And don't look so embarrassed Inu-kun! You know you like them…
InuYasha: …(shrugs) Yeah you're right. (goes back to looking for nickel)
Kagome: (blushie) Men. They have no feelings what-so-ever.
Shel: Yep.
La: Yep. (goes back to cutting up a picture of Lyric)
Kagome walked along in the back of the group, pushing her bike along with a sour expression on her face. After an hour of begging, the little girl walking next to her had finally convinced the miko to change into her miko clothes. Yumi beamed up at her. "See, you look more natural like this!"
Kagome heard InuYasha mutter something and she picked up a pebble and threw it at him. "Ow!" He yelped as the small rock bounced off the back of his head. Kagome stuck her tongue out at him and he "feh'd" at her. "Idiot woman."
Kagome scoffed at him and turned her attention back to Yumi. "These clothes kind of bother me. What was wrong with my old clothes?"
"Skirt was too short. But that's not what was wrong." Miroku muttered but in result got a hard punch from the hanyou behind him.
Kagome rolled her eyes at the two and Sango gave the lecherous monk a disapproving scowl. Yumi chose to dismiss it all since she was way too young to understand any of it and answered Kagome's question. "It just all…weird. I don't understand that entire Modern Time story you told me."
Kagome sighed. What was real to Yumi and the others was a story to her and what was real to her was a story to them with the exception of her family and InuYasha. She turned her gaze back to the hanyou who was yelling insults back at the monk who tried to convince him it was an innocent remark. He tries, She thought to herself. Even if he doesn't mean to, he helps.
Yumi tipped her head to the side in confusion. What was that dreamy look that crossed her mother's face? …or rather Kagome's face. She hated admitting to herself that Kagome was her mother. What had made Yumi go so crazy days back? She decided to ignore it.
After finally scaring Miroku enough, InuYasha turned around to expect a SIT! from Kagome but instead locked eyes with her noticing the sweet look on her face. "What are you staring at?"
Kagome's expression didn't change. She shrugged. "Nothing." InuYasha growled inwardly and slowed his pace to walk next to Kagome. Yumi felt someone pull her up to walk next to Sango. "Hey!"
Sango threw her a look that told her to be quiet. Shippo glared at Yumi from upon the taijiya's shoulder. He resented Yumi for stealing all of Kagome's attention away and leaving no room for him.
Yumi pouted and crossed her arms but continued to pace along with Sango and Miroku and Shippo. Every now and then, one of the four would look back to see Kagome and InuYasha in deep conversation and wondered if they had forgotten who was there with them or where they were going. Miroku tried to break the awkward silence by trying to grope Sango but she smacked him and yelled at him for being such a heitai (think that's how you spell it) so loud a few birds scattered.
Shippo twisted around to maybe see one of the two glare at Miroku but InuYasha was talking to Kagome about something and she replied now and then but even though he strained, Shippo could not make out what they were saying. "Whatever it is, he wanted to talk to her about it for a long time." Shippo thought out loud. Miroku nodded in agreement and Sango snapped her fingers so Shippo would look straight forward instead of staring at the two behind him.
After a while, they had encountered a huge barrier that supposedly surrounded Naraku's new castle. The four leading stopped walking and Kagome bumped into Miroku. "Hey!"
Shippo was already quite irritated and jerked around. "In case you two haven't noticed, we reached a barrier."
Kagome shook her head and the last of the conversation. She had never actually talked to InuYasha that long before someone made someone mad and he ended up eating dirt. "What Shippo?"
Shippo pointed to the large glowing purple barrier most of it hidden by trees since they were deep in the forest now. "Barrier!"
Kagome sighed and leaving InuYasha pushed her way through the group and lightly touched the barrier. Because everyone had seen it before, it was amazing to Yumi to watch the part of the barrier disintegrate just form Kagome's touch. "Whoa."
Kagome walked through the small opening and stepped to the side to make sure everyone got through and dragged her bike in through the opening and hid it behind a tree, no longer wishing to drag it the rest of the way. "Was that Naraku's barrier?"
Miroku searched for any signs of disturbance. "Possible, though I don't sense anything too extreme."
"I don't smell nothin' either." InuYasha said after sniffing the air. A poison insect buzzed opposite direction of the area they just came. Yumi pointed up at it. "Samyoshou!"
"That would help." Miroku smirked and the group took of after the buzzing insect.
The insect weaved in and out through the trees leading them into deeper youkai territory and eventually the edge of miasma. Kagome and Yumi stopped as the others raced ahead into the poison haze. Sango put on her poison exterminator mask and looked back at the two waiting. "What are you doing?" Her vice came muffled from within the mask.
Kagome shook her head as Yumi clinged to her pant leg. "The miasma is too thick! We would never make it…"
The rest of the group had stopped and looked back trying to figure out what to do with the miko and the young girl.
Sango growled in frustration to herself and ran back to the clearing. "Yumi, I'll share my mask with you but you have to hold you breath for ten seconds, alright?" Yumi nodded and Sango placed her mask over the girl, took a deep breath, and started to run through the miasma. Kagome stood there watching and it wasn't five seconds before Sango and the small girl disappeared into the ever thickening miasma. Kagome took her sleeves and brought them up to her face and tried stepping into the miasma only to cough and choke on the fumes.
Her eyes stung and she felt her self beginning to feel light headed and tried to inhale air but was greeted with poison. Kagome felt herself being pushed quite hard out of the clouding fumes and into fresh air. "You idiot! What the hell did you think you were trying to do?"
Kagome lifted her watering eyes up at a very angry hanyou glaring down at her. "I thought I could…(inhale) make it…" She sighed. "I'm so…pathetic."
"Never stopped you before." InuYasha replied flatly. Kagome caught her breath and climbed on InuYasha's back. "Alright, let's go."
She took a heaping gulp of air then buried her face into his collar and he flew into the fumes. After what seemed hours but was only a minute, Kagome was forced to take in air but this time it was miasma free. She opened her eyes and took her face out of InuYasha's neck to look around.
A huge castle perched at the bottom of a hill was a dead give away it was Naraku's castle. The miko jumped off the hanyou's back and onto the ground, softened by the miasma. The castle's huge wall cast shadows down on the group as it loomed against the dark purple sky. Kagome felt someone tug on her pant leg which scared her but looked down to find Yumi taking in all the surroundings from the safety beside her.
The air suddenly filled with a green mist that drowned out the poison of the miasma. A figure stepped out from beside the shadows of the castle wall. From the looks of it, it was a very tall and slender woman with long black hair and fluffy dragon-like ears perched on top of her head. A thin furry dragon tail dragged on the ground behind her. "So you've come finally." She spoke with an icy tone. She narrowed her cold green eyes at the small girl still holding onto Kagome as if she was being torn away from her. "And you've come also. Good."
"Who are you?" Miroku demanded resisting the urge to ask the demon his famous question. "You don't look like one of Naraku's usual reincarnations."
"You don't smell like him neither." InuYasha growled at her. The demon snarled in return. "Me? One of Naraku's reincarnations?" She laughed. "I am far too beautiful to be one of his little experiments."
"She's got us there." Miroku commented out loud and received a glare from Sango. "Then who are you?"
"I am Ren. And that's all you need to know." The demon replied to the exterminator's question. "And before you battle the demon inside, you must get past me."
"No problem." InuYasha smirked drawing Tetsusaiga. Ren held up her clawed hand. "InuYasha, I don't wish to waste my time on you. I only want one thing." She pointed to Yumi. "Yumi, sweety. You were so cute until you turned on Naraku. But I guess it wasn't all your fault; that witch, Kagura and the other one, Kikyou, had a lot to do with it."
Kagome cringed at the mention of Kikyou. She knew it would bring up feelings but to her relief InuYasha dismissed that comment. "Spare us! What do you really want?"
Ren chuckled lightly. "I want Yumi. And if she comes out of the battle alive, you may seek Naraku."
"Yumi is not going to fight you so forget it!" Kagome shouted at the dragon demon. "She's too young to fight! She doesn't know what attacks she has except to create barriers."
Ren sighed. "Oh, you silly girl. I don't expect Yumi to fight. I expect you to fight for her though.
"And—." She interrupted before InuYasha could object to the idea of Kagome fighting a demon by herself. "If anyone interrupts our battle, I'll kill Yumi."
Kagome detached Yumi's fingers from her pant leg and stepped forward. She had never fought a demon on her own before. And she could tell this one wouldn't go easy on her.
"Kagome…" InuYasha tried to protest. Kagome turned around to look at him. "You guys go find Naraku while I keep her busy. I'm sure I'll be able to beat her." She said it with such confidence, InuYasha almost believed she could really do it without any problems. "Fine."
Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kirara took off into the castle and to their surprise, Ren let them go without a word. Kagome glared at InuYasha. "Go now before she changes her mind and attacks. Take Yumi with you too."
InuYasha hesitated. Was it really a good idea to leave Kagome and go look for Naraku without her? "Go now." She hissed at him.
InuYasha grabbed Yumi's arm but she didn't budge. "What are you waiting for?" Yumi pulled out of his grip. "If Kagome-kun gets into trouble, I can protect her with my barriers…so it would make sense for me to stay here. Besides, I can protect myself."
InuYasha couldn't help but smirk at her. "You're pretty confident. Starting to sound more and more like—."
"Kagome-kun?" Yumi sighed. Then she reconsidered it and smiled. "Possibly."
InuYasha took off after the others without another word. Ren watched him leave and then turned back to Kagome. "Feel safe without your man to help you?"
I think I can handle you without him." Kagome said pulling out an arrow and reading her bow.
Ren flexed her long black claws. "Then let the battle begin."
Kur0: I am soooo evil! Leaving you guys with such a cliff hanger is pure genius! But I must ask you, do you think Kagome will die or beat Ren? JA! Oh yeah! And as for what Kagome and InuYasha were talking about…you'll find that out later!