Hey! Welcome! Welcome. Shoutouts first and foremost to the reviewers: Milye6, bleedingangel95, Alexis tutsi, Princessbinas, Blitza, Sharelove (thank you!), and SilentSnowLepoardNinja (Lol, are those rhetorical questions?).
To the followers and favorite clickers: you are adored and appreciated! So much!
And this week was a little beast. I'm in Cali on a trip and just now am getting time to post. This was ready by Thursday though... I promise!
~Yasha's Sis
Circumstance
Book 2: Land of Grass
Chapter 5:
Apathy
"Hey, InuYasha-chan. I need to ask you something."
A spike of irritation surged through him at the childish address but it was smothered quickly beneath the ocean of apathy drowning him.
Kagome would have expected InuYasha to be angry at the circumstance he found himself in.
She would have been wrong.
Light brown eyes lifted slowly from the direction of the forest that marked his exile and dragged over towards the falsely chipper red head.
The woman had been trying to draw him into a conversation for the past three hours but InuYasha had nothing to say. There was nothing to say when the person you trusted most in the world sent you away. Like an unwanted mutt.
Like a hanyou.
He stared at her dully once her image focused. Her bright red hair was tied back in a tail, braided, and the easy smile that normally sat on her face was marred by concern.
InuYasha felt an unwelcomed flicker of worry for her- she was alone too, even surrounded by people- but he silenced it swiftly. She would just as soon abandon him as the next person. In fact, why hadn't she already?
Because she cares.
InuYasha snorted bitterly at the thought but the noise was lively enough to draw a more amused expression on the woman's face.
"Any other day I'd be annoyed if that was directed at me but you've barely mustered the urge to scowl these past few days so I'll take what I can get." She took a breath, agitated not youki buzzing to his senses like a hive of wasps just out of eyesight. "Look, I know you don't particularly like me," she paused and grinned self depreciatingly. "Or anyone really, but Mama would curse me in her grave if I left you here alone."
InuYasha tensed. Like hell I'm getting snatched up for a second time. I'll die fighting first.
Oblivious to the tension running through his frame, Kushina scrubbed her face with both hands and let out a sigh. "But then I'd hate myself if I dragged you along unwillingly."
The hanyou blinked dumbly at her admission, brown eyes scanning the rest of the forest for an ambush. They had to be using her to distract him so he wouldn't respond accordingly.
"You're a resourceful kid." The She-devil continued softly. "You can find your own food, and defend yourself better than most genin. I wouldn't be leaving you defenseless, but-"
Lavender eyes caught his and InuYasha looked away at the empathy there. Like she could know what it was to lose everything. To be abandoned by the one you trusted most.
"But," she continued, gently grasping his chin and turning him to meet her gaze. "I'd like to give you a place you could maybe call home one day. It doesn't even have to be with me," A nervous smile. "There's plenty of places in Konoha that you could make your own. Old man Hokage is a sucker for kids and he wouldn't leave you high and dry, despite the little shit that you are. I know how it is to feel alone and this could be fun-"
"Stop." InuYasha snapped, jerking his head out of her hands. "You don't fucking know the meaning of alone. I don't need your pity, and I don't need you. You've wasted enough time hovering over me. Go back to wherever you came from and get lost."
He huddled in on himself and twisted away, stubbornly refusing to watch her out of the corner of his eye. If he let himself get sucked into her rambling- her Kagome like cheer- InuYasha would cave. He would set himeslf up to be shat out and abandoned just as he dared to feel something close to happiness.
He didn't need her or her sass or her sympathy.
InuYasha had always been alone. Had always been meant to survive like the cursed creature his tainted blood proclaimed: aching and lonely and so so tired-
This was how it was meant to be.
InuYasha once thought to fool himself that his status in life could be changed.
It was past time to embrace it.
Next chapter: Kushina's POV
Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
~Yasha's Sis