AN: Thanks for all the adds and reviews and such you guys! Please keep telling me if you like the story or even if you don't! Any sort of feedback is much appreciated:)
The Fire Bearer 2:
Separating Souls
kagomes-wanna-be
Chapter 6- Why We Fight
It had been four days, and there was still no sight of InuYasha. Kagome was starting to become restless, going for walks or practicing with her fire. She was becoming angry at her abilities. They felt so weak compared to what they used to be.
It was all due to that dog demon. He had taken half of her soul, half of her power. Sure, she had gained half of his in return, but it was nothing that she was overly proud of. She could smell and hear better, her teeth were sharper and her nails were much longer, but that was it. That bastard now had her ability to use fire and sense others simply by their bodies essence.
The other's had noticed Kagome's growing irritancy, especially towards Inu no Taishou, and weren't sure what to do about it. There wasn't much they believed the could do. Kagome's soul had been played with so many times in her lifetime that it must have been hard to suddenly have half of it torn from her again.
She had screamed at him at one point, and more surprisingly he had yelled back at her. The group wasn't sure what had happened, but Kagome had screamed about feeling extremely weak and that it was all because of him, and he had returned with something about it not being his fault that she had to drag him back to life with her.
They had both left the transaction growling with clenched fists. From everything they had been told by Sesshomaru, his father was a gentle man, never raising his voice. He let out all his anger on the battlefield. It had been a shocking exchange and the two hadn't spoken to each other in two days because of it.
The group had simply come to the conclusion that with Kagome's soul came some of her personality traits, leaving Inu no Taishou with slightly less balanced emotions than before. If this was true then it would only be so long before their frustrations reached a head with one another.
--
Inu no Taishou sat in silence, leaning against the side of Sango and Miroku's hut. 'That girl is infuriating!' he thought to himself with a snarl, his arms crossed and staring at nothing. 'She doesn't know how to hold in her temper and lets it loose on anyone she pleases. She needs to learn how to bite her damn tongue.'
His eyes glared at a spot in the dirt as he thought of her. 'Not like it's hard to tell when she's angry either. Her eyes turn that ridiculously bright orange color, and I could have sworn that I smelt singed hair. She's going to light her own damn self on fire if she doesn't learn to calm down.'
As his thoughts progressed, he didn't notice the orange seeping into his own eyes. The part of ground his eyes were focused on became nothing but a backdrop to his thoughts, something he saw but didn't recognize as anything.
'I'll have to teach her to control that someday. If she ever speaks to me again that is. Stupid girl, too frustrating for her own good.'
The smell of fire reached his nose and his ears twitched, being brought out of his thoughts. He blinked a few times as he stared at the ground, a small part of which was now on fire. Eyes widening, he cursed and moved his foot to stamp at the foot, quickly putting it out.
He sighed and leaned his head back against the hut, grumbling in annoyance. 'That's the second time that's happened already... I need to learn how to get this under control before I burn down an entire forest. I wonder if it ever happened to her when she first got her abilities...' he tried to rid himself of his thoughts of her, but he couldn't. 'Probably not. She seems far to strong to have let such ridiculous things plague her.'
A soft smile crept across his lips as his mind began to quiet down, his body relaxing as he began to fall asleep for a mid-morning nap. 'Her eyes do look nice when they're on fire though...'
A sudden weight landing unceremoniously in his lap brought him out of his peaceful state. He looked around in shock before he saw a pair of chocolate and golden eyes, a growl forming in his chest.
"Come on," Kagome said simply, turning to walk away.
"And where exactly may we be going?" he asked as he stood up, gripping the hilt of the sword she had thrown in his lap.
"To spar," she answered him. "It's been quite a long time since you last battled someone, and it will do no one any good if you are rusty during our travels. We don't know who we may face."
He felt his anger flare and bit down another growl. "Are you insinuating that I can no longer protect myself?"
"Something like that," she said as she stopped in a clearing that she had led him to, spinning to face him. "For the most part I just want to know how well you're doing with your newly acquainted abilities."
"Better than you ever did, I'm sure," he retorted with a smirk.
Kagome's smile dropped as she glared at the man. He had no idea of her life or her achievements in her life previous to her death, how dare he make a comment such as that. She had killed the greatest threat to the survival of Earth in all of history, and he was mocking her.
"Ready?" she ground out, lifting her sword and getting into a fighting stance.
He raised his own sword. "For you?" he asked with a smile. "Always."
--
Sango and Rin entered the hut, holding stacks of newly dried clothing. They were laughing quietly to themselves as they set the stacks down onto a table.
"Hello girls," Miroku said as he walked out of the backroom, kissing Sango gently.
"Hey Miroku," Rin said, smiling at her friends as she began to fold the clothing.
Miroku returned her smile before looking around. "Where's Sesshomaru?"
"Oh, he went to hunt for dinner. He should be back in an hour or so," Rin explained. Miroku nodded his head, accepting the answer and began to help with the laundry.
They stayed silent for a moment before Rin looked up. "Hey, do you know where Father is? I haven't seen him or Kagome since last night."
"Well, I'm not sure where Kagome is," Miroku started, "but Inu no Taishou was just outside a couple of minutes ago. Didn't you see him?"
Sango and Rin looked at each other and shook their heads. "No, he wasn't there," Sango told him.
"Mom! Dad!"
They all turned their heads as Kyoko came flying into the room, stopping to catch his breath. "Kyoko!" Sango cried worriedly, running over to kneel in front of her son. "Kyoko, what is it? What's wrong?"
"Inu... Kagome... clearing... they..." he tried to speak between pants, but couldn't. They waited patiently for him to regain his breath before he finally continued. "Inu no Taishou and Kagome are fighting in clearing. And I mean really fighting! With swords and everything!"
All of their eyes widened as they stared at each other before standing to race out of the hut. "Kyoko, stay here!" Miroku called back to his son.
"And fold the laundry!" Sango called after him before the were too far away for him to hear.
They headed quickly into the woods, picking up on the sounds of battle quickly. Their legs carried them as quickly as they could to the clearing where the two were deep in the midst of battle. Sango and Rin were about to jump into the clearing to stop them when Miroku grabbed them. "Wait!"
"Wait? For what!?" Sango called out in dismay.
"Shh!" he quickly reprimanded her, speaking in a low voice. "Let's just watch them for a little bit."
"But why?" Rin asked as they crouched behind the brush surrounding the clearing.
"We don't know why they're fighting," Miroku explained. "For all we know it's just them messing around or having some fun. So let's just stay here for a bit and wait to see what they're doing. If it turns out that they might really cause some sort of damage to one another then we can intervene."
The girls looked at him wearily but eventually agreed, nodding their heads. All three of them turned their heads to watch the two as they continued their battle.
They were almost moving too fast for the three to keep up with, and yet they never lost each other. Their moves were precise and dangerous, and yet they managed to stay out of the way of each other's moves. Then it hit them.
"They're not trying to hurt each other."
"They're trying to scare each other."
"They're trying to impress each other."
Rin smiled as Sango and Miroku spoke back and forth. "They like each other," she told them playfully, biting her tongue.
"What?" they asked in shock.
"Oh come ooon," she drawled out. "Isn't it obvious? I mean, we all used to do it."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Miroku said, shaking his head.
Rin sighed. "We used to fight with each other all the time before we got together," she explained. "Sango, how many times did you used to hit Miroku over the head with Hairakotsu? Or yell at him for stupid reasons?"
"It wasn't stupid!" she defended herself. "It was because he was a lecher."
"Either way, it doesn't matter," she told her. "Me and Sesshomaru used to get in ridiculous fights before we got together all the time. There would be times that he'd leave me at the manor and just go wander the lands for a week or more because he knew one of us would start yelling at each other otherwise."
"What does that have to do with Kagome and Inu no Taishou?"
"They're demons. They're not going to fight and bicker like we would. They have all their competitions on the field, not in the mind," she explained to them with a soft smile.
Miroku and Sango fell silent as the looked back out at the fighting two. It was true. Humans would fight and bicker, but never really say anything to hurt each other. They just wanted the interaction with one another. It made sense that demons would battle each other, but not actually cause any harm.
A sigh escaped Miroku's lips as he shook his head. "So it would appear that they are starting to gain some form of attraction for one another," he said. "But I think the real question is... who's going to tell Sesshomaru?"
Silence.
"Guys? ... Guys?" Miroku turned back to see that both his wife and friend were gone, groaning. "Oh come on!"
--
Kagome growled as he evaded another of her blows, becoming more frustrated. She jumped back and moved her sword away, holding her hand out. "Fire Strike!" she cried out, a ball of flame erupting from her hand.
The sheer weakness of the attack made Kagome growl in annoyance, her ears pressing down against her skull. Inu no Taishou quickly moved out of the way, taking a moment to stare down at his own hands. He wondered if he could do that as well, but decided to not even bother if his attack would be as weak as hers.
She brought her sword back in front of her and lunged at him, readying it to strike. He blocked her sword quickly, pushing it out of the way. "You forget that I have been training in the ways of the sword for hundreds of years," he said as she spun away.
"I'll still win," she retorted, striking forward again.
He smirked and swung his sword, beating hers down and grabbing at her arm. She gasped as he spun her around, pulling her back to his chest and wrapping his arms around her to restrain her. She gasped, her eyes widening as she struggled against him. "Let me go!"
He grinned and leaned down, pressing his nose to her neck before pulling back. "Very well," he said, letting her go.
She quickly pulled away, spinning to face him. Her heart pounded in her chest and she couldn't keep her face from flushing a bright red. She prayed that it merely looked as though she were flushed from battle.
They stared at each other for a long time before he handed her the sword he had somehow wrangled out of her grasp without her noticing. "I believe it is my win this time, Kagome," he told her.
All she could do was stare at him and try to keep the butterflies out of her stomach as he said her name. Grabbing the sword from his hand, she turned and quickly walked away, trying to get the gleam in his golden eyes out of her mind.
AN: I liked that chapter:) Some parts of it were sketchy, but for the most part it was good. I like trying to bring them closer together and I hope I'm doing it well. Tell me what you think!
Go, be merry, and review.
kagomes-wanna-be
