(Inuyasha, Come Home)

"My name is Inuyasha, I'm a half demon like you already know. I travel around throughout the country searching for shards of the Shikon Jewel, not to mention that bastard Naraku, along with my friends Kagome and everyone else. Huh, friends… I'm starting to wonder about that these days. Ever since it turned out Kikyo was still alive, whenever there's some kind of situation where she's involved, Kagome and the others all gang up on me. I don't know what's gotten into them lately, but they're really starting to get on my nerves. One of these days, I swear I'm gonna teach all of them a lesson."

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Another day came, another spat between Kagome and Inuyasha, with Miroku, Sango and Shippo all bearing witness as the two were at each other's throats. As usual, the argument came to an end when Kagome told Inuyasha to sit a few times, resulting in him being driven to the ground, and when he picked himself up. After that, he stormed away from the campsite, but not before saying something that left everyone in shock:

"You know when Kikyo said called me a liar, when she said that she hated me, at least then I understood why!" and then he was gone, into the forest covered by darkness.

Seeing that Kagome was left saddened by this, Miroku took the opportunity to put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down "I think you should let him think for the time being, let him calm down before anything else."

"Okay." Kagome gave a sad nod, before it turned to irritation as she glared at his hand, which was promptly retracted, but not before a loud slap sounded throughout the area.

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A little while passed, and try as she might to stay awake until Inuyasha came back, Kagome and the others had fallen asleep.

'Great, I'm always the one that has to apologize.' in the dead of night, Inuyasha found himself grumbling and bruising as he made his way back to the campsite, only to stop when he noticed something, and his expression dulled "Oh great, you again."

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Morning came, and the sun was rising over the skies above.

Sango and Shippo were busy at the edge of the river, filling up bottles of water "This should last us at least for the next day or two."

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha where are you?" this was when Kagome suddenly came running out of the forest, panting heavily as she did so, and she looked around the campsite "So he hasn't come back yet?"

"Sorry no, there hasn't been any sign of him. I haven't seen him since you two had that fight last night. You weren't able to find him?"

"No, I borrowed Kirara to try and track him down but there was no sign of him. I even tried to yell out for him to sit so I could follow it, but nothing." this caused Miroku to frown, not that any of them noticed.

"He probably just took off to see Kikyo again." Shippo grumbled from where he was filling up his water.

"Again, you've gotta be kidding me!"

"I believe you're not thinking such a thing all the way through." Miroku said slowly, speaking to them for the first time that morning "First of all, whenever Inuyasha goes to see Lady Kikyo, he always makes it a point to be back by morning, by noon at the latest. Second of all, even if he isn't back by then, he wouldn't be able to go after Kikyo if he doesn't know she's there, and the only way he's able to do that is when he sees her Soul Collectors. I think we were all aware enough last night to know they were nowhere in the area. Perhaps in the future Shippo, you should be more careful about making such claims." his rather flat tone caught the rest of them off guard "Besides, we're supposed to be reassuring Kagome at a time like this, and that's not the best way to go about it. In any case Inuyasha has only been gone for about half a day, he's been gone for longer periods of time and we've had no need to worry. Even if he is, he also has the Tessaiga with him, and I guarantee that once he's done with whatever business he has to deal with and has calmed down, he'll be back and most likely wanting food."

"I hope you're right about that." Kagome muttered quietly "He did seem pretty mad about last night though."

"Whatever the case is, Inuyasha will return to us in time, and when he does I suggest that you both stay calm, apologize to each other for last night and then just go about your business like nothing happened. Now then ladies, why don't you come and join us here? I've seen to it that the fish is grilled to perfection."

"There's nothing we can do, so we might as well." Sango promptly sat down by the campfire, though she glanced over and noticed how worried Kagome looked.

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Hours passed, and the sun was beginning to set.

"Well Miroku, what was it you were saying before?" Sango shot a glare at him and held up the hand that was being guided toward her backside "You said that Inuyasha would be back soon enough, and now it's almost been a full day." she received no reply "You don't have anything to say about this?"

"I will say that lashing out at each other won't solve anything my dear." Miroku put a hand on her shoulder to silence her "The most important thing we can do right now is remain calm and think this situation through carefully."

"This is taking too long, I'm gonna go try and find him." Kagome prepared to make another beeline into the forest, only to be stopped by Miroku holding out a staff to her "What are you doing? We have to find him."

"I'm well aware of this, but we have to have some kind of lead before we jump to any senseless conclusions. Shippo."

"Yeah?" Shippo looked up from his place on Sango's shoulder.

"I think your skills will be most useful at the moment." Miroku pulled something out of his robe and held it out to him, which happened to be an empty ramen container.

"So it's one of those things Inuyasha east his ninja food out of, why do you have it?"

"I thought that it would be good to keep this on hand in case he took too long to get back, and now that that's turning to be the case, I believe the time has come for it to be of use."

"Okay, but what am I supposed to do with it?"

"You're supposed to use it so you can track his scent."

"Oh come on, have some faith in me already!" Shippo let out a scoff "You're saying that like I don't already know what Inuyasha smells like? I've got this." so he hopped to the ground and started sniffing around.

"Come on Shippo, you can do it!" Kagome urged him on, which encouraged him to keep on searching for a scent, only for him to stop after a few minutes "What's the matter?"

"...I think his scent stops right here, and it smells really burnt and smokey."

'So we're about three steps closer to finding him.'

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Nightfall came, and the sky above was covered by the moon and stars.

Around this time, Sango and the others had gathered around the campfire in order to work out a plan of action "I think we should split up and keep searching."

"But there's nothing to search with." Shippo told him "His scent ended so that means he probably just took off into the trees somewhere."

"But if that were the case, then wouldn't you have caught his scent in those trees? You told us it just stopped."

"Well we have to keep looking anyway!" Kagome protested "It's not like we can just go off without him!"

"Of course we know that, but we don't have anything to go on. Miroku is right, if we go like this then we'll just be searching blindly."

"...You don't think he's still mad at me do you? He wasn't wrong though, I have been pretty mean to him lately, at least whenever it comes to Kikyo."

"Come on Kagome, you haven't been that bad to him, and even if you are you apologize to him for it and make it up to him."

"Maybe, but still… I think do owe him an apology for the way I've been acting lately. Every time we go into a battle we just stand on the sidelines and expect him to do all of the heavy lifting on his own. Whenever we travel for long distance I mount his back like he's some kind of horse, and I don't even think to ask if he's okay with it. He does so much for me and yet I almost never think to thank him, and what's worse is that I keep sitting him over the smallest things."

"Come on Kagome, you can't pin the blame on yourself for that."

"But it's my fault, and beyond all of that I end up letting my anger cloud my judgement and lashing out at him… You don't think he would've left us to do?"

"I doubt that he would, but if he did, then it wouldn't surprise me." Miroku finally spoke, drawing the attention of the rest of those present and taking them by surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"Before I go any further, I want to make it perfectly clear to everyone that everything I'm about to tell you is for the sole reason that I want what is best for everyone in the group. Do you understand this?" he was met with a few unsure nods.

"I guess so Miroku, but where exactly are you going with this? I know that I have been pretty hard on Inuyasha lately, but it's not like we've been that bad."

"Are you absolutely certain about this?" "As I said, everything I tell all of you right now is with good intentions. I'll have to explain in detail about what it is each of us have done to Inuyasha, and how he deserves so much better."

"Yeah right?" Shippo frowned when he heard this, only for Miroku to set his sights on him.

"Take you for example Shippo."

"Me?! But I haven't done anything to him, he's always mean to me so Kagome has to come in and teach him a lesson!"

"Don't be like that." Miroku's frown deepened "I'm fully aware that you and Inuyasha do not always see eye to eye on many things, and that you have engaged in more than your fair share of squabbles. You go out of your way to make him angry on purpose, I've noticed that a number of times. Inuyasha is your friend, and whether you want to admit it or not, he's the only true father figure you have in your life right now. He's put himself out there to protect you and all of us more times than any of us would care to mention. Lest you forget, he was also the one who defeated the Thunder Brothers and avenged your father's death."

Shippo's eyes widened slightly at this as he noticed the disapproving looks he was now getting from the others.

"Shippo, is that really true?" the tone Kagome was using sounded genuinely hurt, not to mention disappointed "You tried to get me to make him sit on purpose? That's not what the beads are meant for and you know it."

"Well… he's just missing, it's not like he's really gone! You can't think that he would up and run away just because he got a few bruises!"

"Shippo that's not the point." Sango pointed out, her tone firm "That's a horrible misuse of that power, you already knew that and you still did it!"

"Sango my love, as much as I hate having to condemn you for any acts of wrongdoing, this is something I must do." Miroku let out a sigh and took her hand in his "As wrong as it might have been for Shippo to abuse the power of the Beads of Subjugation, I'm afraid that you and I are in no position to criticize. You and I are just as guilty, perhaps even moreso. We've witnessed these exchanges between them and turned a blind eye, but recently we've also been accusing him of being in the wrong when it wasn't the case. We've watched Kagome lash out at him, Sit him when it's unjustified, and worse of all claim that she hates him. What makes it even worse is that we tried to force him to apologize for it."

"You were the one who told him to do it."

"I know, and I was wrong to do that. I was uninformed of the situation at the time, and I made a hasty conclusion without learning all of the facts. I don't intend to make a mistake such as that one again. But even more than that, when Kagome accused him of lying about what happened in his meetings with Kikyo, we not only fed those accusations, we encouraged them."

"But…" she was silenced by Miroku holding up a hand to her.

"As ashamed as I am to admit it, the only reason I understand how he feels about the situation, is because I know how it feels to be in that situation."

"What are you talking about?" Sango frowned in confusion, but then her expression turned to one of guilt when the realization dawned on her.

"It's a painful position to be in. You refused to listen to believe me back then, no matter what I had to say to you. It was sad, I could tell that deep down, you didn't trust me. That, and the fact that you were saying to me "Drop dead, idiot." with the look in your eyes. Knowing that the one you care for most, that feeling is absolutely gut wrenching."

Sango said nothing, she just bowed her head in shame, only to suddenly find herself pulled into a tight hug by Miroku.

"That's one of the many great things about life. Many of the mistakes you make, you have an opportunity to learn from, and so you should take advantage of it." he gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head, and then turned to the last member of the group "Kagome-"

"Don't." Kagome was quick to cut him off, her tone soft and somber, and with her eyes being covered by her bangs "You don't have to say it Miroku, I already know. I don't know what it is about me, but you're right. I've been so horrible to him lately, and I never even realized it before tonight. I lashed out at him, I accused him of lying to me… I said I hated him, and then I just brushed it off. If anyone should be apologizing to him, it's me."

"Don't be that hard on yourself."

"It's true and you know it. Whenever I get upset I end up taking it out on him, and I get so jealous I feel like I'm not even the same person."

"You're not doing yourself any favors. I never intend to make you feel bad about yourself. All I wish for is to ensure that all of us learn from our mistakes."

"I will, I promise. The next time I see Inuyasha, I swear I'm gonna treat him like he's the only person in the world." this was followed by a loud rumbling going off in the distance.

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Meanwhile, in the forest…

"You can't escape me!" within the forest, a large ogre demon was chasing after some random human villager, and eventually cornered him by a large tree "Such a foolish human, how could you even think you could escape from my territory?"

"Please I beg of you, have mercy on me!" the human didn't waste any time in pleading for his life.

"As if I would ever show mercy to a pathetic human." the demon lunged for the human, only to be stopped by a Sacred Arrow embedding itself into the tree next to him "A Sacred Arrow, is there a priestess nearby?"

"Let the man go!" this was when Kagome showed up on the scene with the others, which prompted the man to run away in terror 'We hear a noise, we go looking for it because we think it might be Inuyasha, and instead we find one of these.'

"How dare you free my prey!" the ogre lunged at Kagome, only for her to suddenly be pulled out of the way by Sango.

"Thanks for saving me, I guess there's no sign of Inuyasha."

"He can't be too far, I can smell him." Shippo told him.

"Who are you and what business do you have in my domain?"

"We don't have time for you, we're looking for Inuyasha!" this was when Shippo took notice of a certain something that caught his eye "Hey you guys, look at that!"

"What is it?" Kagome's gaze trailed to what Shippo was pointing at, and her eyes widened with shock at what she saw "That… That's the locket I gave Inuyasha."

"And that's not all either. Kagome… take a look over there, behind the demon." Sango pointed a single finger at where a series of bones and skulls were scattered throughout the area.

"Bones and skulls and stuff scattered all over the place… and the locket…" Kagome froze in her tracks, and she could feel her blood running could "Oh no…"

"Where is he?" Sango didn't waste any time in draw Hiraikotsu off her back "I said where is he, where is Inuyasha?"

"Spare me you human scum!" the ogre demon barked out a laugh full of malice "You expect me to believe that I can remember the names of every insignificant creature that I've ever eaten? Don't make me laugh."

"Answer the question, were you the one responsible for killing our half demon friend?"

"Now now, there's no need for you to shed tears. You'll be meeting your friend again soon enough, in the afterlife!" and so the demon pounced at them.

"Hiraikotsu!" Sango didn't waste any tme in hurtling Hiraikotsu at the demon, which prompted him to retreat "Dammit, don't think you're going to get away with this! You're going to pay for what you did to him!"

Kagome was less focused on the demon right now, as she found herself on her knees, staring at the locket she held in her hands 'Inuyasha…' and then certain memories began flashing through her mind, but they weren't particularly pleasant ones for her. Case and point…

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"Oh be quiet! This is all your fault! I hate your guts!"

"I don't know what you think I did, but you'd better knock it off before I get seriously mad!"

"Inuyasha SIT!"

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"So take back what you said earlier."

"Huh?"

"Don't pretend you forgot already, you said that you hated me a little while ago!"

"Oh really, did I say that? Oh sorry, I guess I did forget."

"Why you- Do you have any idea how much that hurt?!"

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"You're mad right not aren't you?"

"Not really, I trust you."

"Thanks Kagome."

"And that's why…"

"That's why what?"

"I want you to tell me exactly what happened when you went to see Kikyo last night."

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"You can tell me the truth you know."

"Why wouldn't I tell you the truth Kagome? Quit being so stupid!"

"Sit boy."

"Why you…"

"Sit boy. Listen, I was nice enough to let you go off by yourself. Sit boy. So at least let me know what you talked about. Sit boy! Why do I bother having any consideration for you at all?! Sit boy!"

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'I can never tell I'm how sorry I am… I can never tell him how much I love him…' as these sets of memories continued to run through her mind over and over, Kagome could feel the tears streaming down her face 'Inuyasha…'

"I think we've wasted too much time already." Miroku took a step forward, motioned for everyone else to get back, and he gripped "This beast can rot in the void of the Wind Tunnel for eternity, it's what he deserves."

"No Miroku, get back." Kagome slowly pulled herself back to her feet and prepared to fire a single arrow "This one is mine."

"Kagome…"

"I want revenge. This one is for INUYASHA!" with a shriek filled with unbridled fury, she then unleashed a Sacred Arrow of enormous power, one that not only struck the demon square in the chest and purified it in an instant, but also ended up obliterating most of the surrounding forest with the sheer energy it had put out in the process. With the battle now over, Kagome once again fell to her knees, with Miroku and the others trying to comfort her in silence.

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Hours passed, and the sun rose throughout the skies of Feudal Japan.

Miroku and the others watched from afar as Kagome had huddled herself next to a tree, sobbing quietly to herself over the pain of loss "I can only imagine how much pain she must be feeling right now."

"You were right Miroku, about everything you said before." Sango's voice was soft and quivering, and it was clear that she was trying not to cry herself "Inuyasha has done so much for us, and instead of appreciating him we took advantage of him."

"Dwelling on the mistakes of the past won't do you any good my dear."

"But Inuyasha was…" Shippo started tearing up himself.

"I believe Kagome needs to be alone for the time being." Miroku turned around and prepared to walk away, only to stop and for his expression to brighten considerably "Then again, perhaps not as much time as I had first believed."

"What do you mean by that?" Sango turned around to see what he was looking at, and her jaw literally dropped at the sight of it "Inuyasha?!"

Sure enough, Inuyasha was emerging from within the trees, a large stone being carried over his shoulder as he locked eyes with the group "What the hell are you guys gawking at?"

The sound of his voice caused Kagome's head to snap up, and she slowly pulled herself to her feet and turned to face him, her eyes brimming with tears "Inuyasha…"

'Fuck, I'm gonna have to be the one to apologize again aren't I? Alright alright, I'm-" he was suddenly cut off by Kagome rushing towards him and throwing her arms around him and sobbing into his shoulder, causing him to drop the large stone.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" she kept repeating it over and over again as she continued crying into his shoulder, which caused his usual hard expression to soften.

"What's all this about?"

"Everything. I'm not just saying it, I really mean it. I'm really, truly, genuinely sorry, for all of the pain I put you through. For abusing the beads as much as I have… for calling you a liar so many times… for saying I hated you… for everything." this left him even more taken aback than before.

"What brought this on?"

"So much has happened since you've been gone, and… we thought you were dead." she lifted her head up to meet his gaze as she wiped away her tears "We found your locket and a bunch of bones and… where did you go? You were gone for so long…"

"Perhaps I can shed some light on this." this was when a certain flea demon popped up and started sucking on Kagome's neck, only to end up being smacked off.

"Oh, so you're here Myoga. So what are you talking about?"

"Totosai asked me to collect a new whetstone for Master Inuyasha's Tessaiga, after learning that he had acquired the Adamant Barrage from Master Hosenki. I couldn't bring such a heavy thing myself, so I came here the other night to ask for some help. I came all this way with the intention of asking Kirara for some help, but I ended up running into Master Inuyasha instead, and he had offered to do it in her place, and then we went all the way back to Totosai's hut in order to pick up the whetstone. I'm sure the monk told you about this."

"Miroku? But why would he-" Kagome paused, and then she looked over at Miroku, along with the others "You knew?"

"Yes he did, he was there when I asked for help."

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(Flashback to the night in question)

'Great, I'm always the one that has to apologize.' in the dead of night, Inuyasha found himself grumbling and bruising as he made his way back to the campsite, only to stop when he noticed something, and his expression dulled "Oh great, you again."

As it turns out, it was Myoga he held in his hand, and he quickly shook off being slapped away so easily "It's been quite awhile my lord."

"Give it a rest with the formalities Myoga, what do you want?"

"Well actually I came looking for Kirara to ask her for a small favor, I need her help with a quick errand."

"How quick?"

"Shouldn't be more than a day or so."

"...Alright then, let's go."

"You mean you're going to do it?"

"If the others woke up and found Kirara gone then they'd just panic. Besides… I don't want to be around them right now."

"So I take it you're leaving?"

Inuyasha glanced down and saw Miroku pulling himself to his feet "Going to Totosai to deal with some crap, be back in about a day or so."

"I see. Well I suppose there's no sense in trying to stop you if it has to be done."

"Good." he turned around and prepared to leave, only for Miroku's voice to stop him once again.

"Inuyasha, listen."

"What?"

"For what it's worth… I know that I haven't always been the friend you deserve, and for that I'm sorry. I can guarantee that by the time you get back, I'll make sure that the others are aware of their mistakes as well. They may not be able to correct them entirely, not right away at least, but you have to start somewhere."

"...Actions speak a lot louder than words monk." and so he took off into the night.

(Flashback end)

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Now back to reality…

"But what about the locket?" Kagome held up the item in question "We saw it in the forest and it was surrounded by all kinds of bones and skulls."

"Oh that, no that's actually quiet simple." Myoga told her "You see as we were making our way through the forest, the locket came loose and fell off. I told my lord that we could go back and get it later, but it seems that you found it before we got the chance to."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"Wait a second!" Sango promptly took the chance to round on Miroku in a rage "You mean to say that you knew where Inuyasha was this entire time, but you let us think that he ran away because of how he treated him, and you let us think he was dead?!"

"Now if I may…" Miroku held up a hand to defend himself "First of all, I never specifically said that Inuyasha did run away. I simply said that he had the right to. That was the point I was trying to make."

"You still let us think he was dead!"

"Now that I admit was not part of my plan. I too felt the dread the rest of you did when he saw that locket among those bones, so I was as fooled as the rest of you. But in any case, what i was telling you before still stands even now. Whatever challenges we face, we cannot allow feelings such as anger, jealousy and resentment to separate us. The time we have together in this world is limited, and I can only imagine how terrible it would be to have unresolved anger and issues with each other. Life is short and precious, so we have to cherish it while we can."

"Miroku… that was beautiful, truly."

"It was part of my teachings." he gave Sango a small smile "I'm still getting hit over the head with Hiraikotsu for this whole ordeal aren't I?"

"Yep?"

"Just checking." and then he proceeded to get the beating of his life via Hiraikotsu for the day's events, with Shippo, Kirara and Myoga all acting as witnesses to it, but not daring to get close to it.

All the while, Kagome looked up at Inuyasha with a bright warm smile as she latched onto his arm and started leading him back towards the campsite "Hey come on, I've actually got a few new flavors of ramen I think you're going to like."

"I'm never gonna object to ramen." Inuyasha gave a smirk at the thought of ramen, and the smile that Kagome was giving him. For once, all seemed right with the world.

A/N:

In case the title wasn't enough of a dead giveaway, this oneshot is heavily based on episode 97, Kirara Come Home, but with Inuyasha having gone missing instead. For those of who you read my other oneshot A New Perspective that I uploaded a few days ago, you'll know that while I do love Inuyasha, he does seem to get the short end of the stick at times, most of them taking place after the events at Mount Hakurei, but that's a discussion for another day. In that story, the main focus was divinig into the thought process of the others (Miroku, Sango and Shippo), and focusing on why they side with Kagome in these disputes as much as they do, rather than with Inuyasha.

As for this story, I stand by the main thought process I had with the last one, that if anyone is going to state how Inuyasha is being given the short end of the stick, it would most likely be Miroku. He seems to have a better understand of Inuyasha and his internal struggles than most of the others, and since he and Inuyasha both have some similar experiences of trust issues (with others believing them to be in the wrong or dishonest and refusing to hear them out, see episodes 154/158 and 161 if you want examples), I figured he would be the best person for it.

Just clearing up one detail in case anyone didn't get it. The locket Inuyasha wore that Kagome had given him is a tie in to the second movie.