Disclaimer: When I dream a dream, he's all MINE!! MUAHAHAHA! But unfortunately, I'm awake and so Inuyasha belongs to Ms. Takahashi.

MICE! GODDAMIT! I HATE MICE! But since you guys reviewed, I'll continue typing in my deranged office. I know chapter three's Kikyou was OOC, but I wanted a little humor to balance out all the sadness this story will contain in future chapters. After all, I'm a humor...ish type of person. Not in real life though, cuz when I try to tell a joke I confuse myself and other people and it's not funny (kinda like Merlin in Finding Nemo) but when I write I can create a whole laughing stock. I can say things a lot better in writing than in person, but what-ever! Yus guys came to read a story and by God I'll give you a story to read. So enjoy Scroll 5!

Scroll 5

Say My Name

Kurabawa felt like he had gone through hell and back as he returned to his uncle's castle. It seemed he was weaker than he had first anticipated.

"That idiot took all the strength from me..."

He had known Kikyou was a great priestess, considering his uncle had trusted her to protect the jewel, but he had no idea she possessed such immense power. That kind of power could only be attained through self-sacrifice and an intense dedication to the source. Had she never accepted the jewel, her power wouldn't have been half as great as it was now.

He stumbled into the great halls of the castle and limped slowly inside, wanting to cry out for help but finding his voice was dried and cracked. His arm felt dislocated and the blood would not stop flowing from his mouth. What the hell had that wench done to him?

"Oh! Lord Kurabawa!"

A maid grabbed onto Kurabawa and let him use her as support. As a general rule, servants never asked or questioned their masters about anything, so she helped Kurabawa up to his room, where he fell onto his futon exhausted and murmured something about revenge and blood before drifting off to sleep.

SOMETIME LATER(if you must know, it's five days later)

Inuyasha had been the talk of the village for these past days, and, frankly, he couldn't stand it. Gossip this, murmur that, all these different commentaries about him were driving him insane! Especially since they thought they did it behind his back. Unknown to them, Inuyasha could hear every single comment made about him, no matter how quiet they were.

"Did you hear about the hanyou that has been trying to steal the jewel from Lady Kikyou?"

"Yes! I have heard something about it."

"Word is he's trying to seduce our lady!"

"No. Way. Are you sure?"

"Well, it's only a rumor...but I wouldn't doubt it for a second. I think he'd do anything for the jewel. You can't trust half-breeds like him."

Just then, Inuyasha popped out of nowhere and scared the two nosy idiots as they scattered off into different directions, screaming about demons and curses. Inuyasha huffed and stood there with his arms crossed and watched as the two losers ran off. What most disturbed him was that those two idiots were just village children, the eldest one looked like she was thirteen. Thirteen! What the hell was this world coming to?

You can't trust half-breeds like him.

"Stupid punks." He said.

In these past days, Inuyasha had attempted (rather miserably) to steal the jewel from the grasps of the powerful miko but never once had he succeeded. He quit trying to sneak up behind her because it seemed she had a powerful sixth sense that allowed her to recognize the presence of anyone within a one mile radius, demon or not. However, that didn't stop him from keeping a close watch on her. He studied every move she made and observed for any sign of weakness she might show.

"Sister, why does ye never use this?"

Inuyasha jumped hastily onto a nearby tree as soon as he recognized the brat's voice. Of course, the brat was none other than Kaede.

"I do not think that is necessary anymore." Replied Kikyou.

"So why did ye make it then?"

"I intended to use it, but like I said, I won't need it."

Kaede took the brown prayer beads her sister had made and started to twirl it gently in her finger, enjoying the jingle it made the faster she twirled it. Kikyou had explained to her how these special prayer beads worked and Kaede thought that it was the most interesting thing her sister had ever made. She looked at the bead necklace and touched the four white fangs her sister had taken the time to drill to put the necklace together. Apparently, those fangs were the keys to force the soul of almost any demon to follow your command. Of course, only those with special spiritual skills could use it.

"Can I have it then?" she asked eagerly.

"As long as you promise not to use them." Teased Kikyou.

"...Yes sister!" Kaede said, laughing, and ran off to show off the present to her friends. Kikyou smiled slightly at the sight of her younger sister running off freely into the distance.

'How beautiful it must be to be free.' She thought sadly.

Her sad smile however, turned into a face of annoyance as she felt the now so familiar presence of a man. Kikyou knew he was there. His aura was too distinct from the other demons'; it was hard not to know it was he. She waited for his challenge to roar out of a tree and, sure enough, it did.

"Hey miko!" he yelled down at her. "I'm ready to take you on again!"

She turned around to face him and saw his amber eyes glare down at her. Then she turned back around and started to walk away.

'Would it kill him to use my name?' she thought, irked.

"What the--hey bitch! What the hell are you doing? I'm over here!" he yelled, and fell off the tree as she continued to ignore him.

'Why that little...' he thought, annoyed beyond belief at this point, but he wasn't about to let the miko go that easily.

"Priestess! Prepare yourself!" he yelled, jumping in front of her and blocking her way from wherever the hell she was going.

"Inuyasha, I do not have time for this right now..." she said placidly.

"That's not my problem. I'm ready to fight for the jewel now!"

He lunged at her and she effortlessly shot him with her arrows. He truly was a waste of them.

As with many times before, he waited for her to finish him off for good, for that fatal arrow that would bring his life to and end, but it never came. Then he finally blurted it out.

"Why do you never strike the final blow!" he growled.

"Get out of here. You're a waste of arrows." Was all she said.

"Feh!"

Unknown to them, they were being closely watched by someone who meant them harm.

'So this is the maiden who possesses the Shikon Jewel, eh?'

The man watched as the priestess placidly walked away from the angry hanyou that had been pinned to the tree.

'This half-breed seems to also want the jewel.'

As if sensing someone was thinking about him, the hanyou looked in his direction.

"Whoever the hell you are, show yourself!"

He waited for a response the man had no intention to return. The hanyou was getting impatient.

"I know you're there! I can smell your horrid breath!"

The man smirked. He would enjoy killing this one.

Inuyasha waited for whatever the hell it was that was hiding itself from him to show himself. But when that person didn't show, he ripped trough the arrows and landed on the spot where the guy had been. It was empty.

'I know someone was here. The stench is still fresh.'

"Inuyasha!"

He turned around at the sound of his name, flexed his claws, showed some fang and prepared for a fight. These were all just reflexes he had developed from previous experiences.

"AH! HE'LL KILL US ALL!"

Inuyasha watched as the screaming village children scattered randomly in different directions.

"...Stupid brats!" he said. He didn't like children very much, not even in his own childhood. Most children would always pick on him or avoid him as if he were some kind of horrible plague.

Out of all the children that had come to him, only one was left.

"Ye are so mean!" she said.

"Shut up brat! What the hell did your mob of friends want anyway?" he asked her loudly.

"They just wanted to meet ye!" said Kaede as if stating the obvious.

"Why?" came the suspicious retort of the hanyou. Even if they were just children, one could never be too careful...

"Because...they've never...met someone like...like ye before." She said innocently, even though it was plainly obvious she was sugarcoating her words carefully.

"Feh! You can tell your little friends to just bugger off!" he snapped. He then jumped onto a tree and leaped away.

'Stupid brat! What the hell dose she think I am? Some kind of side show oddity?'

The more Inuyasha thought about it, the angrier he became. No one had ever treated him equally. No one had had the brains enough to look past his exterior to see the kind person he truly was inside. Everyone he met always looked at him funny, like he was some sort of freak or alien that could never truly be accepted into society. Everywhere he went it was always the same thing.

He stopped abruptly to look at Kikyou who was being surrounded by those bratty village children as they held up flowers for her to take. She smiled warmly and took the flowers gratefully.

Now, this was something new to Inuyasha. The Kikyou, I mean, miko he knew never smiled like that. Whenever he met her, she always had on a pokerfaced facade molded onto her maiden face. Her shoulders were always tense, her head was held firmly high, her eyes would show no emotion as her eyebrows came together to form a serious expression and her lips would always maintain that delicate straight line as the edges curved downward ever so slightly. But the priestess he was watching intently at the moment looked nothing like the fierce warrior he had encountered so many times before during their battles (if you can call them that.). This miko looked relaxed and her eyes sparkled in amusement and sweetness, and her lips formed a gentle smile as she gave it to the children. In short, she was a completely different person.

As Kikyou talked to the children, he couldn't help but eavesdrop. His ears were, after all, a magnificent gift that Inuyasha felt should never go to waste.

"Lady Kikyou, why is that half breed following you everywhere?" asked a child.

What! I do not! , Thought Inuyasha undignified.

"Please Mira, do not call him that. He has a name, you know."

That's right!

"Yeah? Is it really 'Inuyasha'?" asked another child. "It sounds funny!"

At this, all the children laughed.

'Grr...those blasted children!' Inuyasha thought angrily, shaking his fist in order to keep them from reaching the children.

"Really? I thought it was rather neat." Said Kikyou as-a-matter-of-factly.

Like every other child, Inuyasha stared at her. '...What?'

"Think about it. His name fits him perfectly. 'Inu' means dog, right?"

"Yeah! And he looks like a cute little doggy with those ears!" cried a little girl as all the other girls giggled in agreement. The boys just looked at them as if they were foreign and Inuyasha was relieved he was hiding in a think mount of leaves and tree branches, lest someone spot his blushing face.

"And 'yasha' means demon." She said, making sure she had the attention of every child in her surrounding. "So it only seems natural that he be called a 'dog demon' wouldn't it?"

"But he's only half!" stated another child.

"That shouldn't matter." Said Kikyou calmly and tried her best to explain it simply to these innocent souls. "What matters most is what the person has inside them. Think about it in this way. If you get some peanuts, they all are different, right? Some are big while others are small, some are lighter than others are, and some are smooth and others have cracks in them. Maybe that peanut with the cracks had a rough journey to get to where it was now. But no matter how you look at it, it's still a peanut because like every other peanut, it still has the same things inside as any normal peanut. If I cracked a whole bunch of peanuts open, you wouldn't be able to tell which peanuts came from which shell because they would all be the same. We are all the same inside." Kikyou looked up into the tree Inuyasha was in. "We just look different on the outside."

Inuyasha looked at Kikyou, his bangs blew gently in the wind as he pondered her 'peanut' speech. Maybe she understood too...

"Speaking of peanuts, I'm now hungry!" cried a chubby child. All the children laughed in unison and agreed with him. "Mira, can you take these flowers with you and leave them in my home please?" asked Kikyou to the little Mira. "Yes Lady Kikyou!" she said happily and she left towards the village with the other children, leaving behind the hanyou and priestess alone once again. Kikyou looked up at Inuyasha and saw his sad face. Those once fierce amber eyes of his were replaced with sad darkened ones as he looked at Kikyou. But, somehow, he wasn't really looking at her, but was more like looking straight past her as he reflected on the words she had spoken. She had never seen such pain before in his eyes, so much sorrow. What a rough life that peanut must have led...

"Inuyasha! On guard!"

The breeze Kikyou's arrow made snapped Inuyasha back into this world. The arrow she had shot at him was pinned to the tree two feet to his right and it was obvious she had intended to miss him.

"What the hell is your problem, huh?" he angrily screamed down at her.

"Sorry. I had wondered where you had run off to for a moment, but if you're back from wherever it was you were," Kikyou drew another arrow, "we can continue the battle from this morning." Unknown to him, this was Kikyou's way of saying, "You're more yourself when you're angry."

"Alright! Now that's what I'm talking about!" he smirked and leaped down to fight the priestess once again. But before he could even land on the ground, he found himself being pulled back by a force known as Kikyou's arrows. Once again, Inuyasha was pinned to a tree as Kikyou calmly walked away.

"What the hell! You promised a true battle! Hey!" he yelled angrily at the miko, who became tinier and tinier in the distance.

"COME BACK HERE, KIKYOU!"

He thought he saw her stop, if only for a moment, but as fast as she had stopped she walked her way forward again.

"DAMN YOU, KIKYOU!" she heard Inuyasha's faded voice scream.

'Damn you, Kikyou, huh' she thought. Then she smiled.

'Well...it's a start.'

End of Scroll 5

Jesus...I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired, it's not even funny. School's been a total drag and I haven't been able to update any of my stories. Except for one, but that one I started eons ago. But whatever. If you want to know ahead of time when the updates will be, go ahead and check out my bio. I must warn you though that not all the dates posted up there are final. In other words, just cuz I say I'll update on Saturday doesn't mean I'll actually do it. Sometimes I will and sometimes I won't. The dates are just personal estimates of mine. But sometimes it feels like homework and then I don't feel like doing it. I'm weird like that. Anyway, I hope you guys got the whole 'peanut' issue. My teacher invented it so I don't own it okay? I hope this chapter was worth your wait. And if it wasn't, well then it sucks to be you. Oh god. My eyelids feel so freaking heavy. And of course, that's not good. When I'm tired like this and I fall asleep, not even the sound of screaming high school students on a football game can wake me up. And I practically live right next to my high school. And right now they're having a game(I think) and there's floats and stuff like that. But I'm too much of a party pooper and loser to go. Yup. That's me. Well, 'Till next time then.

Adios.