Updated March 2017
Many thanks to all of you guys for coming by and reading/re-reading this and extra thanks to Rumiko Takahashi. I take no ownership save my OCs ;)
Direction
Sango leaned up to Kagome, a sly grin stretching across her face, "So, what did you two talk about last night?" The taijiya's attitude towards Inunomaru had clearly changed overnight.
Kagome blushed slightly but waved it off, "Oh, nothing really. He isn't much of a talker. He did thank me for the food though…didn't eat any of it, but he appreciated it."Why did she think everyone was just going to ignore what happened the night before? Of course they're going to ask about it, she thought, don't be silly, Kagome.
Sango, of course, didn't believe her as her grin widened mischievously, "And what about that?" she pointed to Kagome's healed face.
Her hand flew up to her cheek hard enough to give herself a quick slap. She cringed a little at her unintentional self-harm and blushed even stronger, "Um…he…he healed me." She'd completely forgotten about Inunomaru's 'ability' he showed last night. Her brain had been a little preoccupied on other things, yet the lack of injury was an obvious change. If the others didn't drown her with questions about what she and Inunomaru talked about, they were definitely going to mention her miraculously healed face.
Inuyasha had been listening in on the girls' 'private' conversation and butted in when Kagome mentioned being healed. "And how in the hell could he have done that?" He jumped over to them and leaned in a bit too close to Kagome's face, curious, amber eyes focused on her cheek.
Kagome's blush flared furiously now, turning from embarrassment over Inunomaru to embarrassment over the hanyou that was way too close for comfort, "How am I supposed to know how he did it? He just did!"
Her rebuttal was useless for he wasn't paying attention at all. His hand came up to grab under her chin and moved her face back and forth to get a better look at it, "Wow, not even a scar!"
She slapped his hand out of the way and growled at him, "Can I please have my face back?" She moved her jaw around sorely. What was she, some sort of evidence now? "If you're so fascinated by it, then go cut yourself and see if he decides to heal you or just laugh at your expense!"
"Hmm, that's not a bad idea…" he grinned to himself.
"Ah, you're such an idiot!" she got up and stormed out of the house.
Sango gave Inuyasha an icy glare. Her arms crossed across her chest, fingers digging into the sleeves of her haori in frustration.
He shrugged his shoulders and gave her an innocent smirk, "What? It was just a joke." And it was. He didn't mean for his comment to get Kagome so angry, but be as it were, there was always a way that he managed to get her fuming with his tries at humor. Sango was apparently no different.
"Gah, you're so heartless," she spat at him and stormed out behind Kagome.
He growled, "Now what?"
"Well," Miroku said blankly as he sipped his morning tea, "Kagome is angry that you failed to show any appreciation for Inunomaru-sama healing her face. And Sango is angry because you didn't show Kagome any sensitivity for her feelings."
"Maybe you should go and apologize to them," Shippo said, comically trying to mirror Miroku's blank attitude.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes and pouted. There was no way he wanted to deal with both the girls at the same time; that was worse than any youkai. Besides, if anyone should be apologizing, it should be Kagome. As he remembered, he had covered Kagome from the effects of his brother's actions. They would've been ripped to shreds had it not been for the shield of the Tetsusaiga and his fire-rat kimono. All Kagome got out of it was a little scratch and it was gone now, so why was she complaining?
"Inuyasha," Lady Kaede said, "Ye will go and apologize to Kagome-chan," her aged face gave him a sharp stare while her crackling tone solidified the order.
"Humph," he growled. Yeah right!
"Inuyasha"
"Okay okay, shesh!" He got up and stamped to the door, the pout never leaving his face as he hesitantly stepped out of the house. Again, it seemed like the powers of a woman's resolve were too much for him to handle.
He saw Kagome and Sango standing just off the porch, facing away from him in the same cross-armed position. Their fuming body positions gave him a pang of trepidation deep in his gut. Yup, definitely would've been safer to have just stayed in the house. Not enjoying a second of what he was certain was about to happen, he finally got up the bravery to step off the porch.
"OSWARI!"
BAAM!
Damnit!
Kagome and Sango couldn't help but giggle.
Inuyasha popped his head out of his hole and glared at Kagome with his dirt covered face, "What the hell was that for! I was coming out to apologize!"
Oh, don't be stupid, Inuyasha. You knew exactly what would happen when you came out here. Kagome walked up and knelt in front of him, a smile plastered on her face, "Really?" she gave her word an overly high pitched tone for a second then turned her attitude around and narrowed her eyes into a sharp glower, "I don't believe you."
He turned his head away and mumbled, "I'm…I'm sorry…you happy?"
She stood and crossed her arms, "Not hardly, but I'll accept it."
She knew that Miroku and the others had forced him to apologize since he would've never done so on his own. Nonetheless, an apology was an apology, so she could manage a smile and deal with it for now. She'd gotten the retaliation she wanted, so she was satisfied.
She looked back up to the house just as Miroku and Shippo walked eagerly onto the porch, followed closely by Lady Kaede. The familiar sound of Inuyasha's face hitting the ground was enough to get anyone's attention, though Kagome figured they had expected it either way.
"Guess she wasn't as forgiving as we thought," Miroku grinned, confirming her assumption.
Inuyasha growled and pulled himself from his hole, "Thanks for the support, Miroku."
Kagome giggled again but stopped mid-laugh as Inunomaru crested over the hill into view. He walked over to them, looked down at the Inuyasha-shaped hole in the ground, and then back at the dirt covered Inuyasha. Kagome caught that inu-glint of amusement pass through his eyes just as a low snarl came from the dirty hanyou behind her.
"Don't you laugh to, Inunomaru," he growled again.
His brother merely raised an eyebrow, "Would I be laughing at you or your skills at digging holes?"
Nearly everyone forced back a laugh with that. Inuyasha just growled louder, "It ain't funny!"
Kagome controlled another urge to laugh then almost skipped over to Inunomaru, "Good morning, Inunomaru-san. How are you?" She didn't notice how her attitude had completely changed or the amused grins that Miroku and Sango exchanged at her unusually bubbly reaction.
Inunomaru nodded in greeting, "I am well, Kagome-san."
Much to Kagome's chagrin, the soft persona he had shown her a glint of last night was replaced by his usual, stone-like exterior. She should have expected as much though, with that wonderful, youkai brick wall of his.
He shifted his gaze to the rest of the group, "I have found something that will be of great interest to all of you." Without another word, he turned around and headed for the youkai crater.
"You not gonna tell us what it is?" Inuyasha asked.
"You are coming are you not?" He continued walking, "Why tell you when you are going to see for yourself?"
Their battle of wits was humorously one-sided, and before Inuyasha tried his hand at another failed comeback to Inunomaru's comments, he was abruptly cut off as the rest of the group walked past him and followed his brother down the hill.
Kagome stopped halfway down and glanced back at him with a sarcastic but positive grin, "Are you coming or are you just gonna stand there like a bump on a log?"
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." She grinned wider as he pouted past her.
The crater was just as massive as Kagome remembered. The ground caved down into the earth in a giant sinkhole and the remnants of smoke still snaked out from between the ruble like ghostly serpents through the air. She couldn't hold back the shiver from the memory.
Inunomaru lead them across the many piles of rock to what looked like a mass of shredded white fur. Upon further inspection, the remains of a baboon head were noticeably scattered within it. So much for the day getting better, she thought.
"Naraku's kugutsu!" Sango gasped, taking the words out of her mouth, "But how could we have missed…?"
"Do you think it could've been planted somehow?" Kagome asked.
Inunomaru shook his head, "I kept watch over the area throughout the night. There was no form of external occurrence save the birds."
"If that's true, then this really was no ordinary kugutsu," Miroku said. "Somehow, Naraku was able to create one that could not only use and hide the presence of a jewel shard, but also strong enough to be completely impervious to our normal attacks. Even though its main body was underground, Kagome should still have been able to pick up the presence of a shard and Inuyasha should have still been able to pick up his scent. There's no other reasonable explanation for it."
Silence held them for a while before Sango apprehensively spoke, "Do you think it could have been sent intentionally? Like…to test a theory?" Her eyes fell upon the daiyoukai standing before them.
Their mutual realization was sudden.
"You think it was sent to test Inunomaru-san?" Kagome gasped.
"Sango makes a valid point," Miroku said, hand at his chin, "Though, how could Naraku have determined that Inunomaru-sama was with us and how did he manage to measure his skill level?" Barely everyone missed the hint of suspicion in his voice.
"You forget Naraku's got those damned siamyosho everywhere," Inuyasha growled, "The bastard's probably spying on us right now!"
"It is possible that I was discovered by Naraku earlier than I had assumed," Inunomaru said to the monk, almost to reassure him, "As you well know, hoshi-sama, I am only hidden from those who had contact with my father. In all other matters, I am no more concealed from Naraku's spies then any of you."
Miroku was still suspicious, but he nodded, "Hn, this is true."
"Who cares what the thing was sent here to do, test, or whatever! Either way, if Naraku can pull something like this off, than we've got a serious fight on our hands," Inuyasha snarled as he crushed a piece of singed fur in his claws.
Kagome turned to Inunomaru, "How did you find the kugutsu's remains?"
"I caught the scent this morning as the smoke finally cleared the area of its odor, and found the remains buried here," he took a few steps to their left, "I also discovered this," he motioned to a caved-in tunnel towards the northeast, "The youkai seemed to have traveled deeper underground before rising to the surface to attack."
"I'll bet ya if we head in that direction we should run into Naraku sooner or later," Inuyasha smirked.
Inunomaru nodded, "Indeed."
"Then we have no time to waste," Miroku stood up from the remains, determined and eager.
Kagome halted their excitement temporarily, "If we're going to run all the way to the other side of the country, I'm gonna need to run back to my time and get some supplies. I'm running low on first-aid equipment and I definitely don't want to run out again," she said. It had only been a few weeks since the last time she went home but if they were planning on traveling a long way, she wanted to be adequately prepared.
"Isn't that why we have Inunomaru here?" Inuyasha said with a cocky smirk.
Kagome could have suddenly passed for a tomato.
Naraku grinned at the image in Kanna's mirror. Everything was all going according to his plans.
He had had Kanna follow the new youkai since the first time his presence had flared up many weeks ago, and now that he had joined Inuyasha's group, his interest had grown considerably. There had been hints of Inunomaru's ability to use purifying attacks solely left for priests and priestesses and the kugutsu he had sent was proof enough. However, while his range of abilities intrigued Naraku, it was nowhere near as interesting as the youki that permeated from him.
"Well well well, this new brother of Inuyasha's is quite exciting now isn't he?" he jeered.
"He seems to be very powerful," Kanna said in her eerie monotone.
"Yes, powerful and foolish," a laugh sounded deep in his chest, "As you saw yourself, he pushed himself far too hard in his attack."
Her blank stare was answer enough.
"If he is willing to kill himself so effortlessly to protect those people, he will be more than easy to manipulate," Naraku's eyes tinted blood red as the image in the glass faded, "Let us see how far we can push you, Inunomaru…"
END Part 1
And were back to the end of part 1!
If you are reading this updated version, you can tell I kinda switched the reasoning behind the tentacle demon puppet. I think having it sent specifically for Inunomaru worked out better then some random "super puppet" thing XD
Anyways, can't give enough thanks to all of you guys! Your reviews, favs, and follows are what started this back up again.
Till next time ;)