Disclaimer – I don't own Inuyasha.
Chapter 6
It was mid morning when they all woke up to the smell of breakfast.
"What are you cooking Iria?" Kagome asked as she and Inuyasha came up behind her and sat down. Iria jumped before looking over at them and smiling.
"Food, sorry to have woken you." She replied.
"It's fine, besides, this food looks wonderful and smells delicious." Kagome smiled.
"I figured it was the least I could do for you guys." Her smile was apologetic.
"Why do you say that?"
"I'm… leaving again Kagome, and I don't know when I'm coming back. If I come back." She corrected sadly.
"Where are you going that we can't come with you?" Kagome asked.
"My friend, the one I went to go see the other day, told me something… that's been bothering me and I have to figure it out by myself."
"I won't let you do whatever it is, by yourself." Kagome replied.
"We won't let you do whatever it is by yourself, Iria." Inuyasha said to the younger girl.
"Thank you, but, if it means risking your lives, I'm not letting you come with me." Iria's eyes shone with many things that could not be placed by either of the two, but they were emotions far past her years.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Kagome's question had been inevitable.
"I'm going to find my fathers grave." Iria stated.
"Why?" Inuyasha asked now intent on the conversation between the two.
"There's something there that I have to retrieve… I also need to find my brothers, and whatever my father left for me in his grave should help me and them to… it's not important, my brothers will seek me out, and well, it's not going to be a fun thing to see. We didn't exactly part on 'better' terms…" She carried off.
"Well then, you'll stay with us until they seek you out, then we'll let you do what you need to do, and we'll all go together."
"Your not going to let me go on my own are you?" Iria asked the two.
"Nope." Inuyasha finalized.
By this time everyone had gathered in the circle, rubbing sleep from there eyes, seeing the food they dug in, surprisingly Kagome was the first one to go for a second helping.
"Um… Kagome, are you alright?" Inuyasha asked concerned.
"Yup. I'm just really hungry for some odd reason." She replied digging into the rice and stew that had been put onto her plate.
"Um…" Iria said, scooting away from the older woman.
-.- Later in the day -.-
They had started heading out again after breakfast. Kagome was being carried by Inuyasha, and was consequently asleep on his back. Iria was running slightly behind Inuyasha while Sango and Miroku were on Kirara riding above them.
"Inuyasha, it's getting close to nightfall. When are we planning to stop?" Iria called up.
Inuyasha skidded to a stop, motioning for Iria and Kirara to do the same.
"Let's stop now, then you Sango and Kagome can all have a bath before dark." Inuyasha said.
"Are you trying to imply something there Inuyasha?" Iria asked, crossing her arms across her chest and giving him a pointed look.
"What if I am? What are you going to do about it?" He replied.
"Well with you hiding behind Kagome and all I can't really do much without hurting her now can I?"
"Inuyasha? Where are we?" Kagome asked as she was getting off of his back.
"We're heading back to Kaede's village. But we're stopping for the night." He explained.
"I need a bath." She said, wrinkling up her nose.
"There's a spring down from here… if you and the others would like to go for a bath."
"I, for one, would love to go for a bath, with you two lovely ladies." Miroku grinned pervertedly, before falling to the ground unconscious.
"Yeah, I bet you would." Sango said.
"C'mon let's go, I'll show you the way." Iria smiled.
Kagome grabbed her bag, before walking over to Inuyasha and kissing him on the cheek.
"Watch Miroku for us please." She asked politely.
"I will." He replied, kissing her one last time before she headed after Iria and Sango.
-.- At the hot-spring. -.-
"Here Iria." Kagome said, handing the other girl a hair band for her hair.
"Thanks." She replied, taking the hair band and putting her hair up into a high bun at the top of her head.
"Your welcome." Kagome smiled. "Sango, do you want one?"
"Nah, that's okay."
Sango and Kagome stripped of their clothes and put them on a rock neatly folded not that far away, before wading into the water.
"C'mon Iria." Kagome said motioning to the water, "The waters great."
"Um." She looked uncertain for a minute.
"What's wrong?"
"Shouldn't someone watch for Miroku? All things considered and all." Iria asked carefully. Looking innocently at them.
"He's out cold and besides, Inuyasha said he'd watch him for us." Kagome replied.
"Um…"
"Why don't you want to get in the water, can't swim?" Sango questioned.
"Oh, I can swim alright, it's just, I'll be in, in a minute." She answered.
"Alright." They coursed.
Iria stripped of her clothes and folded them neatly. There were slight discolorations in the skin where jagged cuts had formed into scars. Arrowhead markings from their previous encounter with the villagers. Fresh scabs from where Kagura had hit her with the dance of blades attack. Her ribs were stuck out from the lack of skin on her stomach.
"They'll go away, in time. Don't worry about it." Iria commented, going into the water. Sitting on a rock a little ways away from the other two girls.
On her back was written the words 'hateful sin'.
"Um. Here Iria, I have a thing called shampoo, it's for your hair, makes it shinny and stuff." Kagome said handing her a little pinkish red bottle with Sakura blossoms on it.
"Oh, thanks." Opening the bottle she smelled it and smiled. "This smells really good." Her smile widened as they got into a conversation on stuff of the modern era that was Kagome's home.
As the girls walked back, they came to the clearing and gave the person pocking at their fire a scare, as Iria took one of the swords she had on her left hip into her right hand and held it to his throat.
"Where's Inuyasha?" She demanded.
"Um, Iria?" Kagome said, trying to get the girl to calm down.
"What?" Iria asked, never taking her eyes off of the man.
"That is Inuyasha."
"Inuyasha has silver hair… not black hair… ohh… Opps!" she withdrew the sword from the older man. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Inuyasha said from his spot on the ground still pocking at the fire.
"Don't feel bad, your human nights on the new moon, at least it's easier to hide… mines on the quarter moon." She said walking to the corner of the small clearing gathering small twigs as the went.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asked.
"Hey, just because you're mad at yourself does not mean you can take it out on me." She replied. Planting the twigs in a large circle between each bigger tree.
"What are you doing Iria?" Sango asked.
"It's called a spiritual barrier, I read it in a book not to long ago."
"Oh, what's it for?" Shippo asked appearing on her shoulder.
"It'll protect our presence from demons and humans alike. It was in my father's journal."
"Your father's journal?"
"Yeah, he left me a journal, it was with my friend Tam, she's the one I went to go see a couple of days ago." Iria explained as she went around them.
"An elemental journal?" Kagome asked.
"Yup."
"What element is this spell for?" Shippo asked.
"You'll see. I suggest you all go around the fire with Inuyasha if you don't want to get burned. Stay there until I say it's okay. Alright?"
"Yup." Kagome said sitting beside Inuyasha on the log he was on.
"Okay." Sango said.
Miroku and Shippo had already made there way over to the middle of the clearing, Shippo was sitting in Kagome's lap and Miroku was sitting beside Sango on the log across from Inuyasha and Kagome.
"Element of Fire, candles of thee. Protect thy group from grace of ye. Until these candles burn out tonight, protect us from thy demons at night." As she walked around she touched the top of each twig with her fingertips gently, lighting them with blue flames.
"This is cool." Shippo whispered to Kagome as she nodded and smiled at him.
As the spell finished the blue flame shot straight up 6 metre's before they came together in the middle. (Think of it like a tepee, or those cylinder blocks you used to play with at school, a square pyramid…)
"That was so cool." Shippo said, coming to her.
"Won't those blue flames cause attention to be drawn to us?" Miroku asked.
"No, if I did the spell correctly, then this barrier and the occupants of it should be invisible." Iria explained.
"Can you make the fire blue too!" Shippo asked excitedly.
"Yeah, probably, do you want me too?" She replied, smiling at the younger child.
"Okay!" Shippo hopped from her arms and over to the fire. Iria followed him.
"Alrighty." Reaching out she touched to the red, yellow and orange flame before flinching and pulling her hand back.
"Apparently, we're going to have to try this in a couple of days Shippo, I think I used up to much energy with that barrier." She told the kitsune demon.
"Alright." He replied before going to play with Kirara.
"How are you doing Iria?" Kagome asked the girl as she sat down on the ground in between the two logs to sit near the fire.
Shooting her a tired smile she answered, "Fine, but that's not the spell I probably should have started out with."
"Why not?" Inuyasha inquired. Looking at her with big violet eyes.
"It was one of the middle spells, I should have done two smaller spells and then after I knew how to do them I should have done one of the middle spells, but I guess it doesn't matter now."
Nobody talked for a while. Listening to Kirara and Shippo play. Kagome started to hum softly her eyes were closed and she was swaying to and fro.
Kirara and Shippo came over and sat next to Iria on the ground. She curled up on the ground and the two curled up around the curve of her stomach and legs comfortably. Shippo was snoring softly and Kirara was purring. Iria had her right ear bent, with her head laid out on the joint between her forearm and elbow. Her left ear was still up as to listen to the sounds of everything around her as she too fell into sleep.
"Kagome." Inuyasha whispered, seeing his mate open her eyes and watching the smile dance across her face as her eyes laid on the three.
"They are cute, aren't they?" Kagome whispered back. Sango and Miroku had already gone to bed. Looking over at them, she realized just how close they were, Miroku had his arm around Sango's waist and they were sharing a futon.
Kagome put her head onto Inuyasha's arm and he shifted so that he could wrap his arms around her waist. Kissing her cheek softly as she buried her face into his chest, knowing that he wasn't going to go to sleep tonight.
Soon he moved a now sleeping Kagome over to her own futon knowing that two night in a row sleeping in a tree and on the bare ground would make her either get sick and/or defiantly make her sore.
Shippo stirred beside her as she woke up, his eyes were open half ways as he got up and ran over to Kagome's bed, snuggling into her stomach underneath the covers. Kirara had left a little while ago when Sango was getting ready for bed to sleep at the foot of her master's bed.
Opening her eyes she saw Inuyasha trying to keep his eyes open. Getting up she walked over to him, before crouching down in front of him.
"I'll keep watch if you want to go to sleep." Iria said a small smile on her lips as he jumped, startled that she had gotten that close.
"I've never slept on my human nights… I'm not going to tonight, to many enemies." He replied keeping his voice low.
"You know, none of your enemies can find you, and I told you I'd stay awake. I've already slept a good part of the night and you need sleep anyways, there's only 3 hours left til' dawn and its not going to kill you to go to sleep."
"It might." He replied, voice still low.
She shook her head. "Whatever, but when you get tired tomorrow, don't blame me."
"I won't…" he said.
Getting up she sat down on the log across from him, staring intently on his violet eyes. She could see small specks of gold and silver trying to break through.
"Does it hurt for you?" She whispered the question softly. Breaking her gaze.
"What do you mean?" He knew what she meant, but, that didn't matter.
"I mean when you change, from human to half demon… does it hurt?" She was staring at the ground.
"Yeah. For you?" His violet eyes looking away from her now as she looked at him.
"Yeah, although, I think it hurts more when you're younger." She said.
They were silent for a moment.
"Tetsusagia, it holds your demon blood, to keep it from coming out, doesn't it." It was more of a statement then a question.
"My dad made it from his fang, to hold my demon blood, yes." He clarified.
"That's why I'm supposed to go to my dad's tome. But, apparently, there's a really powerful demon guarding the sword, and I have to kill that demon in order to regain the sword." She explained.
"We'll be there to help you."
"You can't help me though. I have to defeat the demon by myself, or the sword won't hold my demon blood. It's as if in death, my fathers trying to make my life a living hell." She heard him chuckle. "What's so funny?" She glared.
"My father… he's been doing the same thing to me. He died the day I was born you know." He told her.
"My father, died from losing control of the elements." She said sadly
"But," He started, being cut off by Iria.
"No," She shook her head. "It will probably be my fate as well. But I will die a good death."
"How? If you don't mind me asking." He asked.
"Mother never told me. She always told me that he told her he wanted her to be happy with my brothers, told her that she would be safe, told the boys that they should watch out for their baby sister and their mother." She wiped her eyes. "She hadn't understood why."
"How'd your mom die?" He asked. He didn't know why he was asking her those questions.
"When I was 3 years of age, my brother's and I were out playing hide and seek in the woods, because our mother had went missing a little while before, the villagers had sent us away. I had been naïve not old enough to know they had kicked us out of the village so my brothers wanted to keep it that way. When I went to hide, I smelled something awful and sickening, when I went to investigate… my mother was hacked into pieces by the villagers. I had screamed and ran, I didn't speak for 6 years after that." She stopped for a minute.
"I'm… sorry, I… you don't have to tell me anymore."
"Its fine, I feel better telling you about it." She smiled at him.
"After that, my brothers had taught me everything they had known. Well, I followed them either beside them or behind them. They taught me how to hunt and to kill when needed. How to fight, I miss them, a lot." Her smile grew into a thoughtful frown.
"What happened to them?"
"They left. They were each between 6-8 demon years older then me." She shrugged.
"Sesshomaru up and left me, didn't give a damn whether I lived or died." Inuyasha snorted.
"He cared." She said matter-of-factly.
"How do you know?"
"He just chose to look on in the shadows. " She grinned at him, noticing the first signs of dawn coming up over the hills in front of her.
"Yeah, whatever. Then why does he try and kill me."
"The same reason both my brothers try and kill me." She laughed.
"I thought your brothers protected you." He said.
"They do. By training me. Where as they, being older than me, knew our father for a long time, had more training then me, where as I, being the youngest, and father dying before I was born, had none. Do you understand now?" Iria looked at Inuyasha for a minute.
Everything was silent as the sun broke over the mountain and onto the small group. Everyone had woken up from the morning light. Inuyasha changed back to his hanyou form and as he did so, Kagome and Iria were the only ones that seemed to notice his small wince of pain as his claws and fangs came back.
Once they had finished breakfast, they had headed out. Coming to the village gates, they were met by…
A.N
Haha! Little bit of a cliffy there! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Terra34 – Thanks for another really awesome review!
Camthalion23 – Same to you, there really appreciated.
Nidoon – Thanks for the cool comment! Haha! It's good to know that some people think it's good. Lol.
Updated – July 28th, 2006 – ironically, right at 12:00am (midnight) lmao
Expected Update Around – August 1st, 2006.