Chapter 6: Unwanted Intrusion

Warning: Light sexual situation and obscenities in the chapter.

Three days passed rather uneventfully for the trio as they adapted to the mundane lifestyle of countryside people. Daily routines consisted of: waking up, eating breakfast, doing afternoon chores, eating lunch, conducting evening sessions of Chinese crash-course, eating dinner and finally, going to slumber. The fourth evening found the three friends loitering about the compound. Miroku was having fun teasing Sango, Sango was fending off the male's advances, and InuYasha was resting on the ground.

The sharp sound of flesh against flesh resounded across the compound. InuYasha saw from the corner of his eye that Miroku was holding onto his face as the trademark red hand print appear.

"Was that necessary, my dear Sango?" Miroku pretended to sound melancholic as he batted his eyes at the infuriated woman. "It hurts my heart to see you thus rejecting me."

"Seriously, when would you ever grow up? Is it ingrained in your psyche to fondle every single woman that you come in contact with?" Sango raised her voice in an attempt to scare the man.

"On the contrary, my dear, it is ingrained in my psyche to appreciate every feminine body that I come across. If you don't mind me saying, you have a wonderful –" Miroku dodged a flying sandal neatly.

"Would you guys just shut up already?" InuYasha abruptly stopped the couple's otherwise silly stand-offs as the sandal landed near his head. "Couldn't you see what's wrong with this picture?"

"You mean Miroku is trying to grope me over and over?"

"Why Sango, that's quite an insult! InuYasha, I am afraid you have to explain yourself because I see perfectly nothing wrong with me courting Sango."

InuYasha tapped is feet in annoyance and clenched his jaw. "We are in the middle of nowhere, far from human civilization-" He began, re-stating their current situation as if the other two didn't know about it already.

"Correction, my friend, we are still in the vicinity of human civilization, albeit at the very edge of it." Miroku piped up.

"Whatever. We have been here for four days and what have we done? Chores!" InuYasha waved off Miroku when his friend tried to say something. "What sort of holiday is this? I surely don't feel any relaxation in coming to this place!"

"Allow me to interject. You see, everyone has a different mode of relaxation, and yours happen to be pickier than others. It will take you a longer time to start appreciating the wonders of living a rural lifestyle," Miroku walked over to his fuming friend and patted him consolingly on the back. "I think I rather enjoy this type of holiday. Don't you agree, Sango?" Sango grinned sheepishly at InuYasha and nodded her agreement with Miroku. It definitely felt good to be far away from the city bustle from a change.

"See?" Miroku smiled, "think about the positive things: we get to be independent now, we can work-out even more here, we learn some cool skills that none of our friends will ever know about…" he was counting off his fingers as he list all the possible things he could think of.

InuYasha blew his hair out of his face while he listened to Miroku's chatter. What is wrong with these people? He could not – and would not – understand the attraction of such a god-forsaken place. When Miroku continued on with the positive aspects of the village, InuYasha's patience broke. "Shut the fuck up! I…Gah!" Talking was never his forte, and he found it even more frustrating now that he couldn't communicate his feelings across. Instead, he resorted to leaving his friends behind and going for a walk in the nearby woods.

"Do you think he will be fine?" Sango queried.

Miroku shrugged for the uptenth time since his arrival in this place. "You know him. He will blow his steam off soon. And now that we are alone–"

Another slap resounded.

~oOooOo~

After fifteen minutes of mindless walking, InuYasha felt better. A gentle breeze wrapped itself around his hair and lifting the black strands coyly into the air. He inhaled deeply, smelling the sweet fragrance of fresh air. Perhaps that lecher had a point after all…

All too suddenly; his feet touched thin air and he lurched forward. He rolled down a hillside with full force until he hit the forest ground at the bottom of the hill. Perhaps not.

Kagome spent the whole day helping her family deliver milk to the other members of the village. As a result, she was physically drained. Luckily, she didn't have to teach the guests today. Despite their fast pace at learning things, they still made a lot of frustrating mistakes. And it did not help that one of them – the one with the long black hair and stunning violet eyes – was hardly cooperative whilst wearing scowls all the time. As if the whole world was against him. The woman treaded her way amongst the trees as she followed the sound of water. She arrived at a river that gurgled at the bottom of the hill by her house. Casting her eyes around, Kagome ascertained that no one was near the river. When she was sure that not a single soul was to be spotted, she stripped her clothing and stepped into the river.

As her feet hit the cool currents, Kagome gasped in surprise and pleasure. It felt so good to have waters flow by, caressing her body with its icy touch and removing whatever dirt that clung to her body. She sighed blissfully. If only life was that good.

But no, life was never easy for her family. And much more so when her father departed. She wished that she could live the life of the 'city people', even for one day. She used to travel down the mountain with her father so as to gather or drop off supplies. Sometimes, she picked up papers from the ground and looked at photos of the wealthy city people. When her father saw her sighing, he would say with a reassuring smile that he would earn enough money to send the family one day off to the city. Well, that was wishful thinking. Now that father's gone, I guess I have to look at the world more practically. Unconsciously, Kagome began singing a song that her father taught her long ago.

Who? What? Where? InuYasha's thoughts swirled in a mind-shattering vortex as he lifted his upper body off the ground. His vision was spotted with dancing dots. Okay, cool down. I fell, I rolled off some fucking hill and I hit my head. Ouch. He gingerly probed his skull. At least there didn't seem to be any fractures. As he tried to lift himself further, he heard someone singing nearby. The singer seemed to be sobbing to herself as she sang. Although he did not understand the lyrics, the emotion of grieve that it carried cannot be mistaken.

InuYasha looked up and blinked. Once. Twice.

If fairy tales were real, this would be it. InuYasha thought that he was staring at a painting. A painting of a naked woman waist-deep in the river with her back towards him. The composition of the image, the perfect interplay between light and shadow and the harmonious fusion of colors made it looked so unrealistic...and fantastical. Wasn't she the one called Kagome!

Uncontrollably, InuYasha's eyes traveled downwards from Kagome's hair to her shoulder blades, and then down her back to her...Shoot! He screwed his eyes tighly shut and mentally punched himself. Granted, InuYasha had seen girls with better curves and skin on magazines and on campus. Heck, some of them even offered – no, begged – to be his girlfriend! But never did he see one naked in real life and at such a close proximity to him. What will the lecher say if he caught InuYasha staring like an ape? No doubt Miroku will take every chance to mock him thereafter. And if father knew, he would roast me alive for being indecent. So now comes the question: what should I do?

One part of InuYasha's mind roared for him to run away before Kagome found out. But risking a quick peek at his surrounding proved that escapade was impossible. The ground was littered with too many dry leaves to grant him a quiet escape. In fact, if he even made one big move now, the rustling would definitely attract Kagome's attention. Said peek also made its way back to Kagome's frame. There was something rather beautiful about the woman – a wild and primitive sort of beauty that could not be imitated by city girls. Strike that thought! Why am I turning more and more into the lecher? Perhaps he should just saunter up to her and say casually "hey, I accidentally rolled down the hill and saw you naked". It was the truth, but sometimes truths were better kept secret.

On the other hand, Kagome was so lost in her song that she didn't perceive the object that crashed behind her. She closed her eyes and rocked in rhythm to the melody that she was singing (no need to mention how much InuYasha's eyes bulged at that sight), happily oblivious to the other's presence. "Why doesn't the pain stop spreading?" Kagome ended the last sentence with a slight inflection on the word 'pain'. She had no idea why her father taught her such a sad song when she was only a mere child, but that song continually haunted her, especially during her father's funeral.

Finally, satisfied that she was clean, Kagome turned to grab her shirt and stopped short.

Although InuYasha had never been a Shakespeare fan, he found himself in one of the most famous dilemmas: to be or not to be? Or more like: to run or not to run? Neither choice was good. If he ran, he would look like a pervert that was caught. If he stayed, he would still receive a nice lecture, but at least he could try to explain.

Kagome gasped. Even though the guest was looking elsewhere, she still did what was the most natural thing: screamed and plunged her body back into the river so that it was out of sight. InuYasha's eyes immediately turned towards the sound of her scream. When he realized that he had been caught red-handed, his expression transformed from confusion to horror as his mouth opened with an 'o' shape.

"Shit! I...mountain...down!" InuYasha tried to make a coherent sentence, but all he managed were random words. So much for the crash course with Miroku that he had been doing for the past few days...

It was rather a strange sight: a woman screaming her head off and a man shouting words in an equally loud volume at each other. That went on for quite a few minutes before they ran out of breath and InuYasha turned his back against her. "Look, I really didn't mean it." He began in Japanese, but realized that Kagome could not understand him. "I...fell down...mountain. Accident...saw you. Sorry." Damn the limited vocabulary that he could muster! He hoped that the woman could understand what he was trying to say.

For a short while, there was an awkward silence. Then it was followed by a loud splash, a few shuffles and the pattering of feet running away. InuYasha tentatively turned around again and was greeted by the sight of an empty river.

Suddenly, Miroku's words found its way back to his mind.

"You don't like her?"