Chapter 3: On To the Bathroom

It was dark when InuYasha was awoken by the urgent need to visit the bathroom. He glanced cursory at his digital clock ("thank god it runs on batteries" InuYasha mused to himself) and it glowed a four forty-five a.m back at him. Damn, this is way too early to be awake. But his bowels would not allow him the privilege of staying in bed longer. It must have been the oily food from yesterday night's dinner that caused his current 'stomach-churning' situation.

The young man struggled out of his bed and felt around for his pants, which he found discarded on the floor at the corner of his bed. Kaede had told them to remove all their attires except the undergarments when they were asleep. According to her, it was easier to void the cold in the night if they sleep without their shirts on. No need to wonder how riled up Miroku got. InuYasha smirked to himself before cursing under his breath when his toe collided with his luggage. Curse them for their lack of technology and fluorescent light. Strictly speaking, Kaede's wooden house did have some fluorescent lights, but being the energy-saving people that they were, these lights were not used unless necessary.

InuYasha struggled to find his way out of the wooden house without waking anyone. The sun was just beginning to rise behind the mountain, tainting the dark skyline with a tint of yellow. He scanned the open compound, trying to remember where Kaede had said the bathroom was. Finally, he spotted the lone wooden structure some distance off

"Why would anyone build their bathroom that far off?" InuYasha pondered as he jogged to the distant structure.

When he did finally reach the bathroom, InuYasha's jaw dropped in dismay. The bathroom was just a small area with four wooden walls enclosing it. Like Kaede's house, there was no door, just an opening in the wooden walls to indicate that the person could go in through to do their business. The wooden walls weren't exactly well nailed together too. There were slits in between the different planks, some big enough for outsiders to have a good view of the person inside the 'bathroom'. Do the people here not concern themselves with personal privacy? To top it all off, there was a sluggish cow lying right in front, barring the entrance.

"Get out of the way, I need to use the bathroom quickly!" InuYasha raised his voice and waved his hands frantically in the air, trying to scare the bovine creature away. Unfortunately, all it did was bat a lazy eyelid at the young man.

"Fine, you stubborn thing," InuYasha tested the rope that was tied to the cow's neck experimentally. "I'll use force." He gave a sharp thug on the rope. The cow did not budge a single inch. He dug his heels into the grounds and gave a sharper yank.

Kagome was up at four thirty. She dressed herself quickly and proceeded to the well behind the house. Currently the fittest person in her family, she don on the task of waking up early and preparing hot water for the day. She was pumping cold water out of the well when she heard a rush of feet running off in the direction of the bathroom.

"Odd, I wonder why anyone would wake that early. I'll better check-up on them to see that they are fine." Kagome thought.

When she approached the bathroom, she saw a figure vainly trying to remove a cow from the bathroom's entrance. Kagome immediately recognized the man as one of the visitors coming to her house yesterday. She could hear the labored breathing of the man, and watched with fascination as he took on various absurd poses as he tugged at the cow's rope.

InuYasha finally gave up on the cow. It was beyond all his powers to remove the creature from the bathroom entrance. He groaned when he felt his stomach rumble more. He would need to make use of Mother Nature then. Suddenly, InuYasha heard a fit of giggle behind him. He whirled around to see a raven-haired woman tittering with laughter as she rocked back and forth on her heels.

"What's so funny?" InuYasha glared back at her, forgetting the fact that people here didn't speak Japanese. "You know, it's rather rude to laugh at someone who is desperately in need of help with getting in to the bathroom."

Kagome only laughed harder at the young man's cross expression and shook her head. She did not understand what the man was saying to her, but she could well guess what he was trying to communicate. "Do you want me to help you take the cow away?" Kagome pointed at the cow, then at herself, and made motions of pulling onto an imaginary rope.

"Look woman, I don't know what you are trying to do, but if that means that I can use the bathroom, yes." Yes was one of the words that InuYasha managed to remember because it was easy.

Kagome giggled more when she saw the foreigner using one word from her language. They sure do have odd ways of pronouncing the words. She nodded her head and coiled the cow's rope around her wrist. Talking with a gentle tone, Kagome coaxed the cow into standing up and out of the bathroom's entrance. InuYasha was more than awed by how easily she performed the task before his stomach reminded him that he need the bathroom quickly.

"Uh yeah, thanks," InuYasha dipped his head in gratitude before rushing into the bathroom.

Kagome keeled over with laughter when she heard the young man's roar of surprise and anger as he entered the bathroom. He was probably not used to rural bathroom systems. "City kids." She said to herself as she traversed back to her chores.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and hope you guys will continue to like this story! :)