Wow, chapter 14. Like I said if you guys want to see Ikuto Kazasami, see my bio for directions.

Chapter 14

I don't own Inuyasha

Ten Years Ago...

"Mother?" A young boy cried coughing, from the smoke that filled his house. He was terrified, but he had to find his mother. "Mother!" His beautiful home was being destroyed by hideous flames, and he was scared, scared that he would never get to see her again.

"I-Ikuto?"

"Mother!" Ikuto ran into what used to be a library. Now it was nothing but a living Hell. "Mother!" He ran to his mother, who was lying on her stomach, not by choice. There was a wooden beam that had managed to fall on top of her, pinning her to the blood red carpet, stripping her of her privileges of walking.

"Ikuto, get out of here. Get out of here right now!" She was so beautiful. She had beautiful brown skin, not a flaw on it. Her hair was long and thick, and her eyes were as dark as the night. "Forget about me." She had such a love for her son, a love like nothing else.

"I'm not leaving you, mother!" Tears came to his eyes, as he wiped her tears away from her soft skin. "Don't give up!"

She smiled at her son gently, but then began sobbing. "Oh, Ikuto! Please go without me! I beg of you!" She shoved her head on the carpet and tried to hide her face from her son. "Please!"

"I'm not leaving you!" He placed his little fingers on the beam on top of her and struggled with all of his might to lift it up. "We're gonna make it! I promise we will!" With using ever ouch of his strength, he couldn't even get it to budge, but he wouldn't let himself give up hope. "Hold on!"

"Ikuto, look at me!" Her tears were smudged across her cheeks, and her skin was becoming an odd shade of pink, but she didn't care. She only wanted her son to live. "Ikuto, you have to leave me!"

Ikuto stopped trying to move the beam, and looked into his mother's desperate eyes. "You have to do this for me! There's no other way! We're in the library. We're not gonna make it if we stay in here. Sweetheart, I want you to live. That's all that matters to me."

Ikuto broke out into tears. "But you're all that matters to me." Ikuto noticed that beside his mother was a book called The Ugly Duckling. 'That's my favorite story. She came into because she was going to read it to me.'

"You have your father, and your brother."

"But it's not enough without you." He shook his head. "I won't! I'm not gonna leave you!"

Her gentle composure faded away, as fear filled her heart. "Ikuto look out!"

Present Time

"Ikuuuuuuuuuuuuuto!" Kagome cried over and over again. 'I've got to go in there! He's going to get himself killed because of me!'

"Ahhh!"

"Don't worry" Ikuto whispered to the little girl in his arms. "Everything's gonna be alright. Just trust me, and we'll be fine."

She was terrified, but she nodded. "Okay."

Ikuto began coughing, feeling lightheaded and dizzy. 'This feels horrible. I hope I can get out without passing out.' They were on the fourth floor of an apartment building, and everything was engulfed in flames. The little girl was instructed to keep her head buried in his chest, but Ikuto himself couldn't breathe. "Hold on, were almost to the steps.

"I can't take this!" Kagome yelled. "I'm going inside!"

Kagome felt the pull on her arm, and she was ready to swing in order to go into that building to save Ikuto. "Let go of me."

"Calm down, Kagome"

Kagome knew the voice and could have kissed him. "Inuyasha, you've got to do something!" She turned around and grabbed on to his shoulders. "Ikuto's in there! He's saving a child's life, and I don't know if he'll make it!"

"Of course he won't!" Inuyasha barked. "Why do you wimpy humans do such stupid things all of the time?"

"Inuyasha, if you don't go in there, then I'll say it!"

Inuyasha looked a little worried and scared of Kagome, but nodded his head. "I was gonna do it anyway!"

"Then hurry up!"

"I'm going!"

"Crap" Ikuto muttered to himself. The floor leading to the steps was just about gone and Ikuto was beginning to doubt that he could make the jump. 'I'm half conscious. Can I make this jump with the girl?' He felt the girl shaking in his arms. 'She's crying. She's depending on me! I can't let her die!' "Hold on tight!" Ikuto braced himself. 'I don't go out running everyday for nothing!' "Ahhhh!" Ikuto ran forward with the little space that he had and leaped out into the air with all that he had, and with that, he was able to make it across. "I did it!" 'I feel like I'm about to pass out!' "Hold on!"

Ikuto began running down the steps as fast as he possibly could, trying to get out of the building alive, but on his way to the second floor, Ikuto felt everything beneath him begin to crumble. "No!"

The little girl began crying and screaming as they fell down towards the burning floor beneath them. "Mommy!"

Just as Ikuto was about to pass out, he felt arms wrap around him and the little girl and the jerk of a sudden stop. Everything was mostly a blur, but it was a big red and silver blur. "Inuyasha?"

"You idiot! Why would you do something that stupid?" Inuyasha took off his red kimono shirt and placed it on top of Ikuto and the girl.

"I don't want your help!" Ikuto said wearily.

"Then at least let it protect the girl. It will protect her from the flames."

"Ikuto! Ikuto!"

"Stop screaming, Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled as Inuyasha and Ikuto came out of the burning building with the girl in Ikuto's arms.

Kagome ran to Ikuto and wrapped her arms around him. "How could you do something that stupid? I could kill you!"

Ikuto sat the girl down and she happily ran to her parents. "You would have gone in there for her, so I went in there for you, and the girl."

She smiled and turned to Inuyasha. "Thank you, Inuyasha. I know you don't like him. I'm really glad that you saved him."

Ikuto hung his head down and waited for Inuyasha to gloat about how he had just saved his life and how Ikuto was an idiot who shouldn't have done something so foolish. 'Here we go. Just get it over with.'

"Actually Kagome," Inuyasha had a devilish smirk on his face, and Ikuto predicted the worst. "Ikuto pretty much had the situation under control. He was already almost out the door when I got in there."

"Really?" Kagome's eyes brightened when she looked at Ikuto. "Wow, you're a real hero, Ikuto!"

"Thanks Kagome" he couldn't believe that Inuyasha would say something like that, especially since Inuyasha did much more than what he was making out to be. 'This doesn't make any sense. He...he...' Ikutofelt his legs give out on him, and then all of his other body parts followed, as he lost his consciousness.

"Ikuto!" Kagome screamed.

Four hours later, Ikuto awakened to see Kagome's smiling face in front of him. "Kagome?" He used his arms to lift himself up and just starred at her happily before he even asked the question that was really on his mind. 'Where am I?'

"How ya do'n?" Kagome asked him with a sweet smile.

"Fine, I guess." He looked around and realized where he was. He had spent enough time in one to know.

"You're in a hospital. You passed out a little bit after you came from that burning building." Kagome got up from her chair and took a seat next to Ikuto on the bed. "You're so brave, Ikuto." She grunted. "But why'd you have to be so stupid? Do you realize how dangerous that was? You could have been killed! You're just as reckless as Inuyasha!"

"What?" Ikuto said irritated. "First I'm a brave hero, and now I'm an idiotic mutt?"

"Why'd you scare me like that?" she said with tears in her eyes. "You're gonna pay for that!" She wiped her tears away and tried to get herself together. "You stupid boy!"

"Keh" he turned away from her. "What's your problem? I'm alright."

"You shouldn't scare people like that!" She calmed down, thinking of that time Inuyasha became human and they battled Toukajin. She thought that Inuyasha had died, but when she found out that he was really alive, she was angry that he caused her so much worry. 'I was so happy to see that he was okay, just like I'm glad to see that Ikuto is okay.'

Kagome gasped when she saw a scar on Ikuto's right shoulder, which looked like it resulted from a burn mark. "I'm sorry about your arm. I didn't think you got wounded like that."

"Oh" he looked at his arm and shrugged it off. "I didn't. This was an old scar from the fire my parents died in."

"I didn't know that you were in the fire too, Ikuto."

He looked away, not wanting to reveal the pain of his past. "Yeah. There was some debris that fell from the ceiling. It got me pretty bad." He smiled smugly. "Reconstructive surgery works miracles."

"But" Kagome knitted her eyebrows together, not really understanding. "How bad was it?"

"There were some burn marks here and there. This one my shoulder never really went away. It could have been worse. I've seen worse."

She hung her head down low and played with her thumbs. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be Kagome. It's not your fault."

'I had no idea. I knew his parents died in one, but I didn't know if he was involved. Was Suno in there too, and if so, how did these two make it out and their parents didn't?' She prepared herself to ask the questions, but Ikuto looked so depressed. 'I shouldn't ask, at least not right now. I feel so bad for him. He's been an orphan since he was eight. I know that much.' "Your brother is here." Kagome wanted to break the ice that had just turned into a giant glacier. "He's outside in the lobby. The press had a few questions to ask him." She smiled brightly. "You're a real hero, Ikuto."

"Well, I don't really deserve to be called a hero, Kagome. I did it so you wouldn't go in and get hurt."

She blushed rapidly. 'He did that for me. I had no idea that he cared so much about me.' "Ikuto" Kagome said almost above a whisper. "I'm going to the Feudal Era first thing in the morning, so I've got to get home."

"Well, at least you can go home, Kagome."

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm glad that I can go home thinking about you." Kagome covered her mouth and blushed harder, like a true idiot. 'Oh my gosh! I can't believe that I just said that! He probably thinks that I'm the biggest idiot of all time.'

Ikuto was smirking, which made Kagome blush even more. 'He's so cute, especially when he does that.' "Um...I'm just gonna go now." She quickly got out of the room and tried to stop her heart from beating so fast. 'My gosh! I can't believe this!'

In Ikuto's hospital room, he sighed from boredom and waited for his brother to come in, but someone came in through the window instead. "Hey idiot."

"We'll if it ain't dog crap? What are you doing here?"

Inuyasha crossed his arms and looked away. "I just wanted to tell you how much of an idiot you were."

"Really, because you almost sound concerned about me." Ikuto started to laugh a little bit. "To think, that you're checking up on me because you're concerned! How cute?"

"Shut up you stupid fool! I told you why I was here! I'm here because I wanted to brag about me saving your pathetic life. How could you protect Kagome if you can't take care of yourself?"

"She's not really in danger in my world, Inuyasha!" He yelled, but then remembered that he was in a hospital. "Never mind. I just thought I should tell you thanks, for..." he began to talk quietly and low in attempts for Inuyasha not to hear him. "Thanks for...telling Kagome that I saved that kid…and…for saving my life."

"What was that? I couldn't hear you."

"Yes you did, you stupid mutt! Take it or leave it!"

"Keh," he rolled his eyes. "Whatever. And anyway, all that really matters is that Kagome's safe. We may be enemies, but I've got limits. I wasn't going to let you die."

"But..." Ikuto was still very confused from the whole situation. "But why? Why did you tell Kagome that I saved the girl?"

"Honestly," Inuyasha said seriously "I felt bad for you. I mean, Kagome did just dump you flat on your face."

"She what?" Ikuto felt his fingers dig into his thighs.

"You know, that's what she went out with you for. I won our little dispute."

"She..." He trailed off, not knowing if what Inuyasha was saying was really true, but Inuyasha was being completely serious. 'She...she decided him over me? How could she choose him over me? I mean, we had that moment at the tree. I felt something and she felt it too. How could she do that to me? She even chickened out on me and expected me to hear it from Inuyasha?' "Oh, yeah, sure." He turned away from Inuyasha. "Don't..." he sighed "don't rub it."

'Kagome? Is he right? Did you really choose Inuyasha over me?'

To be continued....

A/N: Poor guy. Inuyasha had to be a jerk, didn't he? Ikuto would be too. Review and I'll update!