Title: Body, Mind, and Soul

Fandom: Inuyasha

Stars: The regular Inuyasha cast, but mainly Kagome and my original character, Kusaraku Fujii.

Summary: Kagome takes time off to study. Who is this new boy in her school, and where does she know him from?

Author: Queen Serenity

Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize doesn't belong to me. Anyone you don't, does. Especially Kusaraku Fujii. He's my pride and joy.

Title: Body, Mind, and Soul

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: Inuyasha

Chapter: One – New Student

Kagome was exhausted… both physically and mentally. Her body was sore from the stress of all the traveling and fighting to claim jewel shards; she wasn't a hanyou like Inuyasha!

As for her being mentally worn out, well, you would be, too, if you had to constantly worry about reclaiming pieces of a jewel so that you could prevent demons from gaining power.

But those worries weren't the worst. Her worst worries were for school. She was falling further and further behind, and she could barely understand around sixty-five percent of the work. At this rate, she was going to fail, no question.

And so she had put her foot down. She was going home for two weeks, no arguments. Inuyasha was, needless to say, royally pissed, but Kagome wouldn't take no for an answer. She had to study; she had a life in her own time, too, after all!

When she arrived home, it was early evening. After greeting her family and taking any messages that had been left for her, she took a nice, long, extra soothing bath. After that, she retreated to her room to go to bed extra early; she planned to be extra rested the next day so that she could concentrate.

The next day, Kagome ran into one of her friends on the way to school.

"I'm so glad you're back, Kago-chan," said Yumi, "and you picked a perfect time, too!"

"What do you mean?" Kagome looked curious.

"Well, just yesterday we got a new student; a boy!"

"Really?"

"Uh huh! And he's a real cutie. With intense eyes that you would not believe. He almost got in trouble with the teacher!"

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Well, when the boy first came in, Mr. Tanaga started ranting at him that boys in this school aren't allowed to wear make-up, 'cause it looks like this boy wears eye-shadow. Turns out, though, his eyelids naturally look like that. He had to prove it and everything."

"Geeze!"

"But after that, he had no more problems. See, he's real quiet, and real smart, too. There wasn't a single question asked of him that he didn't get right. HEY!" Yumi grinned as she had an idea. "I bet he could tutor you if you asked him, Kagome. Really, he's like a genius."

Kagome frowned slightly, blushing, embarrassed at how badly she was doing in school. "I dunno… maybe. What's his name?"

"Kusaraku Fujii. Just one thing about him that's a pity, though." Yumi pouted slightly.

"What's that?"

"Well, he doesn't seem to be too fond of girls. Half the girls in class were flirting with him, 'cause he's so cute, but all he did was scowl at them and look disgusted."

Kagome shrugged at this. "Maybe he just wants to concentrate on school."

By then, they'd arrived at school. They were a bit early, though. Most of the students were milling around in the schoolyard. Yumi looked around for a moment, and then gasped slightly. "There he is! See, Kagome? That's him!"

Following the direction that her friend was pointing in, Kagome's eyes landed on a young man sitting in the shade of a tree, his nose in a book, his legs stretched out before him in a casual position.

"Go ask him about tutoring! You've got time now!"

"I don't know, Yumi, he probably wouldn't want bothered…" Kagome went to turn back to her friend, but Yumi was gone. Looking around, she found the girl chatting with a gaggle of other girls.

Letting out a sigh, Kagome looked back over to the new guy. Well, I might as well… I really need to pass this next test.

Sighing again, she made her way over to the boy.

"Excuse me, Fujii-san?" Her voice was timid; she really hated having to ask for help studying… she felt like it made her look stupid, and she definitely wasn't stupid.

Kusaraku didn't even look up from his book when he answered her. "Yes?"

Kagome swallowed the lump in her throat. "Umm… I'm very sorry for disturbing you. I heard that you just recently joined the class I'm in, and so, since I wasn't here yesterday, I thought it might be polite to introduce myself. My name is Kagome Higurashi."

Kusaraku sighed, sounding a bit annoyed, and carefully marked the place in his book before closing it and getting gracefully to his feet, speaking as he did so. "You obviously already know my name, so I won't bother saying it." When his eyes finally fell on Kagome, they narrowed slightly in surprise. "Have I met you somewhere before, Higurashi?"

Now that he was standing, Kagome could get a better look at Kusaraku, whose skin was quite pale. His hair was an unusual length for a present-day boy, especially one who went to school. Braided and black, it reached his waist. His bangs, split in the middle, just reached his eyebrows. His eyes, which were framed by thin-rimmed reading glasses, were, as Yumi had said, very intense; they were a strange brown color with a reddish tinge to them. Also, as Yumi had said, it looked as though he were wearing pale blue eye-shadow, except that it didn't look powdery or anything.

Kagome shook her head. "No, I don't think so…" She frowned slightly. "But I can see why you ask. For some reason, your features seem very familiar to me…" Her brow furrowed as she tried to think where she'd seen him before.

Kusaraku sighed slightly and took off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose as though he could feel a headache coming on. When he opened his eyes again, Kagome saw him without the glasses. The girl let out a gasp.

"Naraku!"