(A New Perspective)
The day had not gone particularly well that day for the group.
It had gone fairly routinely, with Inuyasha and Kagome having an argument, her sitting him, and then her going home through the well. After that, Shippo and Sango had both taken it upon themselves to rip into him in her defense. Nothing out of the ordinary, as far as a certain monk was concerned, until Inuyasha finally swallowed his pride and defended himself. I'll spare you most of the details, but sufficed to say, it was enough to make Sango cover Shippo's ears. He went on like that for a good half hour, but it was what he said at the end that really got the rest of them, him in particular, thinking:
"Like any of you have any room to talk, all of you are so fucking much worse than I am. Take a look at yourselves before you start bitching at me. Besides… if I wanted to leave her, then I would've done it a long time ago." that was all he had said before he took off into the woods, leaving a stunned and silent group behind him.
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About an hour had passed since then.
By that point, Inuyasha had found a nice and secluded spot in the forest with no one around for at least a few miles, and he was able to vent and rage to himself to his heart's content "It's always fucking me isn't it? She tells me she hates me, she calls me out on being a fucking liar, she slams my face into the ground, and somehow it's my fucking fault! I'm the one with commitmet problems, I'm the one who's got the bad attitude! I'm the fucking bad guy all the time! What the fuck do they know?! They just don't fucking get it!"
"We actually understand it a lot better than you give us credit for."
Inuyasha whipped around in his rage and found Miroku standing in the clearing a short distance away from him "Great, what the hell do you want? You here to give me some kind of divine wisdom? Because I have no problems with cramming my sword down your throat."
"Inuyasha please." Miroku held up a hand "I'm not here to make any accusations. I just wish to talk. If it helps at all, I brought food." he held up a few riceballs.
"...One word about me being in the wrong and the sword goes down your throat." so he then, albeit very reluctantly and cautiously, sat down on a nearby rock next to him "So what the hell do you want?"
"It's like I said, we do understand how you feel. Perhaps we don't always covey that message in the best way." this was met with a loud snort "But like I said, we do understand. While it may not seem like it, we do have good reasons for saying certain things and acting certain ways as far as you and Kagome are concerned."
"Oh really?" his tone was practically oozing skepticism.
"Yes. Shippo, well he's pretty straightforward. He views Kagome as a mother figure, the only one that he really does have in his life at this point, and he doesn't want to see her hurt."
"The little bastard picks on me and she sides with him without a second thought."
"I am aware." Miroku let out a sigh "Though to be fair, she does usually make it up to you by making you that ninja food you're fond of so much. What did she call it again, ramen?"
"That only makes up for half of it."
"What's the other half?"
"The fucking point of it, she sides with him every goddamn time!"
"I will admit that there are certain times when Shippo starts things, but Kagome is a protector by nature. She also has very strong motherly instincts, so if a child is crying out, whether it's really justified or not, she will act on them. That, and you know as well as I do that simply falling face first into the ground causes you very little pain."
"Again, not the point."
"Right right. Anyway I'm not saying that you deserve it every time, or what Shippo and Kagome are entirely blameless, but this is simply the way that I interpret it." he was met with an audible scoff "I can see that you're not convinced. Well take Sango for instance. In regards to your struggles with Kikyo, what she's going through with Kohaku isn't that different."
"Yeah well none of us are forcing us to turn her back on zombie shard puppet brother, so why the fuck do I keep getting crap from her about not turning my back on Kikyo?"
"While it could easily be interpreted as hypocrisy, I don't think it's that simple. I believe the reason for it is because she understands the same feeling that you do in regards to refusing to turning your back on someone you love: Overwhelming guilt, shame and a sense of obligation over it. She feels so much guilt and shame over what Kohaku has done, and the things that she's done in her attempts to save him."
"Yeah but I haven't done a damn thing to betray any of us."
"I know that, and so does she, but I believe that she has chosen to take it upon herself to ensure that you don't make the same mistakes that she has, even if her intentions aren't conveyed as well as they could be."
"No shit." Inuyasha just rolled his eyes "So what the hell is your excuse then?"
"I'm less extreme in expressing my beliefs on the matter, and I know that a number of my claims on the matter have been wrong and uninformed in the past, but now I believe I've seen enough to understand your situation."
"Oh really?" still more skepticism.
"Yes. I know how much you care for Kagome, and I believe you still care for Kikyo as well, but it's not that simple. However, you understand that the Kikyo you once knew is dead, but to you it doesn't make a different. But what you feel for isn't just love, your devotion to her comes more from the fact that you feel obligated to her. You feel that you can't abandon Kikyo, even though there is no chance that the two of you can have that sort of relationship, and she knows that all too well."
Inuyasha let out a growl, but he chose not to comment on it, at least for a moment. Then his head snapped towards Miroku "You tore into me when she said she hated me like I was the one who said it."
"I will say that we were wrong to do that, my judgement of blaming you right away was hasty and uninformed to say the least."
"Like calling me a liar at least three times? I've told you everything about the last few times I met up with Kikyo, and none of you believed a word of me. She sat me that one time, and you still sided with her."
"Again, I will admit that we were in the wrong. And to my shame, the main reason I'm only saying it now is because now I know how it feels to be in that position. It's painful isn't it? She refused to listen to you or believe you, no matter what you told her. It's sad, knowing that deep down she didn't trust you. The feeling of knowing that the one you love doesn't trust you. Such a feeling is absolutely gut wrenching. While you realize that you still care for Kikyo, you know as well as I do that your heart itself is with Kagome."
"And what makes you so sure about that?"
"You said it yourself. If you wanted to leave Kagome, then you would've gone ahead and done so a long time ago." and with that, he walked away, leaving Inuaysha to brood to himself.
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It was only after Miroku parted ways with Inuyasha that he found Sango and Shippo watching him from where they were hidden among some bushes "Is that what we look like when we spy on them? No wonder Inuyasha is so unsettled by it."
"We couldn't resist hearing it." Sango pulled herself to her feet and let out a sigh "After what he said earlier I did some thinking, and he's not entirely wrong about us."
"You know as well as I do that we have good intentions, but conveying it properly is at least half of the problem."
"You think we should try apologizing to him?"
"I wouldn't recommend it. Knowing what he's like, I doubt he ever wants to mention today's events again. But if we wish to make amends, I think I know the best way." he glanced over at the sight of the well "Case and point."
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About an hour went by, and things had calmed down.
Inuyasha had taken to his typical brooding spot in the Sacred Tree, only for his peace to be ruined by a familiar scent becoming known to him 'Dammit, so much for being able to hear myself think.'
"Inuyasha?" a certain soft got his attention and directed it down toward where Kagome was standing underneath the tree, a warm smile on her lips and a bag in hand "Hi."
"What do you want?"
"Can you come down so we can talk?"
"You gonna say it if I don't?"
"No no, just… Can you just come down?"
"...Fine." so he did, albeit reluctantly "What do you want?"
"Relax, I'm not upset anymore. And I wanted to say… I'm sorry about our fight."
"Oh really?" his tone was filled with skepticism "And what the hell brought on this little change in attitude?"
"Well I had a little talk with Miroku not long ago. Let me just say, I was the one in the wrong about our fight today. And about that day with Kikyo when I said I hated you. And when I accused you of lying to me."
"Oh wow, the great Kagome Higurashi herself admitted when she's in the wrong about something. Break out the fucking sake, we have to celebrate." his tone was practically oozing sarcasm.
"Si-" Kagome's head snapped up in apparent anger, fully ready to tell him to Sit, but she was able to restrain herself 'Nope, keep your cool girl. I know don't always admit I'm wrong when I should. I mean I do sometimes, but not enough. I know I don't always treat you the way you deserve, sometimes I'm worse than others. I know I'm not perfect, I don't expect anyone to think I am. But if you'll give me the chance, I'll try to do better in the future. So will you?"
"...That depends."
"On what?"
"What's in the bag?"
"Oh, you mean this?" she held it up to him, revealing numerous containers of ramen "It's just a peace offering."
"Start by cooking all of this, and maybe it'll be enough to earn my forgiveness. At least for today that is." this caused Kagome to chuckle and give him a warm smile, and though he would never admit it, that smile was what let him know that everything was right in the world.
A/N:
This fic is something that I've been stewing on for the past few days. See I've been going back to rewatch Inuyasha while I've been doing my new fic A Dragon's Fang, A Human's Heart. However, going back to watch the entire series again, while I still love it, I have noticed that there are times when Inuyasha tends to to get the short end of the stick, not just from Kagome, but from the rest of the group too. Now there are a number of fics where he ends up having enough and lashing out at them or calling them out on it (Roundabout Way by Wowzer313, A New Understanding and Change Can be a Good thing by Missheledor23, etc), all of which provided a lot of inspiration for me doing this oneshot, but here's the thing. As good as those fics are, they usually focus on Kagome overusing and somewhat abusing the Sit commands on him. First of all, a pretty sizeable number of the Sit commands she uses on him are anime only, so I don't think it's fair to judge her character based on those. Anyway, that's not the focus of this story.
This story is about how Miroku and the others mainly side with Kagome whenever she gets into fights with Inuyasha. Or to be more accurate, it's about WHY they always call him out on his crap every chance they get, at least as far as Kikyo is concerned. I've seen plenty of people call this hypocrisy, but I don't personally think it's anything that simple. So I decided to go into it, hence the oneshot you've been given. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't. I guess there's only one way to find out.
