Chapter 6 is here! Some sleepy demons, more pathetic fight scenes. Review please! Even if it's just to tell me my fight scenes are sucky!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha or any of the characters from the original manga/anime.
"Why do you insist on carrying around that bow?" Inu Yasha asked, frowning at Kaze from his perch behind her on the horse.
"Because I don't want to have to depend on anyone to protect me," Kaze answered, patting the bow.
"And why don't you trust me to protect you?" Inu Yasha asked suspiciously, yawning in the sunset.
"Trusting you and depending on you are two different things," Kaze answered, adjusting tiger-cub Sho in her lap. "I don't want to expect you to save me if I'm in danger when I can do what I can to protect myself." Inu Yasha relaxed enough while she was talking to hang his feet on either side of the horse. "Besides, you're always talking about how much you hate humans and you always seem to try not to breathe around me," Kaze continued, not noticing that Inu Yasha was close to falling asleep. "So, since I don't have much of a choice about joining you on this adventure I'd rather not be a burden if poss- Inu-san?"
Inu Yasha's head dropped onto her shoulder as he fell asleep. Kaze turned her head to look at him and saw that he was sleeping peacefully, one hand clutching her shirt. Kaze sighed, looking down at the also sleeping Sho, who was purring loudly in his sleep.
"And I'm a pillow because…?" Kaze asked no one in particular as the horse clopped on.
The next town came into view soon after and Kaze gently awoke the two demons. Inu Yasha jumped off the horse angrily as Sho changed from his cat form to his demon form and wrapped his arms around Kaze's shoulders, still purring happily.
"Will you get off?" Inu Yasha snapped, pulling Sho off of Kaze. As the two demons argued, Kaze looked around at the town and noticed that it was more run-down than she'd expected. While she watched, she saw eyes peering at them from inside broken-down houses.
"If you didn't painfully remind me every time I mention this," Sho began hesitantly, already beginning to wince, "I'd think that you want Kitten to yourself."
Inu Yasha hit Sho on the head and Sho fell to the ground, clutching his head in pain. "I couldn't care less about this useless human!" Inu Yasha snorted.
Kaze sighed, notched an arrow in her bow, and shot past Inu Yasha's head, causing him to stiffen in shock. "What was that for?" Inu Yasha shouted at her as she led the horse away.
"How about you shut up for a minute and pay attention to this town?" Kaze asked back, holding her hand out to Sho. He took it and jumped up onto the horse in front of Kaze and kept a lookout in front as Inu Yasha turned around to see a small rat demon run through with Kaze's arrow.
"That was a good shot," Inu Yasha muttered, pulling the arrow out and hopping onto the horse behind Kaze. He leaned his back against hers to keep watch behind them as Kaze urged the horse forward.
"Why, thank you," Kaze said, notching another arrow. "Watch out, they seem to have found us."
The three moved slowly through the town, Kaze shooting and Inu Yasha and Sho jumping off to tear apart random animal demons before they reached the horse. Kaze finally managed to push the horse to walk into the middle of the village, where the three found the cause of the village's troubles: A snake demon lay curled around a fire with corpses and other demons surrounding it.
"Ew," Kaze muttered, frowning in disgust.
"How do you suppose we kill it?" Sho asked, turning into his demon form on Kaze's lap.
"I like brute force," Inu Yasha said, cracking his fingers in anticipation.
"Don't you think we should have more of a plan?" Sho asked, scoffing at Inu Yasha's idea.
"I don't know, I've always been a fan of brute force," Kaze said, squinting at the snake as it raised its head to stare at them.
The two boys continued fighting across Kaze until a brown blur ran past, startling the horse into throwing Inu Yasha to the ground. Kaze clung to the horse's neck with her hands and its sides with her knees, somehow keeping astride even as Sho was thrown against her.
The brown blur ignored the three and the horse and continued on to the snake, slowing just enough to jump to its head and kick it. Kaze watched with some difficulty while Sho wriggled in her lap, trying to untangle himself from the horse's reigns. The blur turned out to be a tanned young man with brown hair and fur pelts on his legs and body. He was muscular and tall and Kaze watched carefully as he zipped around the snake, confusing it, before splitting it open with a few more kicks.
"Ugh, Koga! That was our prey!" Inu Yasha shouted, standing up angrily.
"Oh, you're here, mutt?" The boy asked, surprised. "Last time I saw you your mate was about to kill you. How'd you survive that?"
"She was not my mate!" Inu Yasha yelled. Kaze jumped down from the horse, ignoring the two of tem, and made her way to the snake, noticing the other demons had run away when the snake died.
"So, where is she?" Koga continued, looking around until he spotted Kaze kneeling next to the snake's corpse. "Who's that?"
Kaze stood up, holding the shard in her hand before tucking it into her pouch. Koga appeared in front of her in a flash. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked, frowning down at her. "That is my shard."
Kaze looked up into his blue eyes and raised an eyebrow. "But you already have two."
"Wait, you still have your shards, mangy wolf?" Inu Yasha asked, sniffing at Koga. "I thought Naraku had all but the one still in my forest!"
"He did," Koga answered, eyeing Kaze as she edged past them with a tiger cub on her shoulders. The cub hissed at Koga when they passed. "Yesterday two shards landed outside our cave, so I picked them up and we started sniffing around for more."
Kaze pulled herself back onto the horse, dropping Sho into her lap, before calling to Inu Yasha, "C'mon, Inu-san, we should go back. We're done here."
Inu Yasha growled once more at Koga before jumping on the horse behind Kaze. "The sun is setting though, shouldn't we stop somewhere for the night?" Inu Yasha asked as Kaze pushed the horse out of the village, passing a pack of wolves on their way in the village.
"I guess so," Kaze agreed, sighing. A couple of minutes later, they stopped in a clearing, having passed through a line of trees marking the beginning of the forest. Kaze hopped down after Sho and Inu Yasha and pulled her bags off the horse to let it rest. She unrolled her sleeping bag and, after snuggling deep in the bag, Sho, in cat form, laid on her stomach while Inu Yasha jumped into one of the trees.
"Inu-san, will you be sleeping?" Kaze asked, confused when he settled down in the tree with his useless sword in front of him.
"I napped earlier," Inu Yasha snorted. "I'll stay awake to make sure no one attacks."
"Alright, good night," Kaze yawned, quickly falling asleep.
Kaze startled awake, the sun beating down on her in the early morning. She rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out why she had a dream about throwing a masked, white-haired, ninja-like man across a village. She shrugged her dream aside, glad she hadn't had a nightmare, and crawled out of the sleeping bag, disturbing Sho, and stood up, stretching. Inu Yasha jumped down next to her, looking exhausted, and Sho changed back to his demon form and rolled Kaze's sleeping bag up.
"Alright, let's get back so I can make sure Kiara is okay," Kaze said, pulling herself onto the horse after strapping the bags on. Sho climbed up onto Kaze's lap and Inu Yasha jumped up behind her and Kaze pointed the horse towards Rin's village. The horse clopped off, carrying its load as a lone figure followed them carefully, keeping out of Inu Yasha's sight.
Inu Yasha managed to fall asleep again on their way back and Sho and Kaze managed to take out all the hostile demons they met up with without disturbing him as he leaned against Kaze. Kaze nudged him awake as soon as they crossed into Rin's village and he ran off, embarrassed that he'd fallen asleep.
Kaze and Sho dropped the horse back off with Rin, and Kaze began making her way back to the well. Inu Yasha dropped down in front of Kaze, blocking her way.
"This is becoming increasingly old, Inu-san," Kaze sighed.
"You can't leave," Inu Yasha insisted, watching her pass before falling into step behind her. "You've only been here three days and we only have three shards!"
"No, we have one shard that is continuously getting bigger," Kaze corrected, showing him the shard. She had added the other one before she'd gone to sleep the day before. "And I do have to go back; Kiara is not known for being graceful." She tugged the shard out of Inu Yasha's reach as he grabbed for it and tucked it back in the pouch around her neck.
"You can't go! I think she can last a few more days!" Inu Yasha yelled.
"Fighting with your mate, mutt?" A voice laughed. Koga was sitting on the well, but neither had noticed him during their argument.
"She's not my mate!" Inu Yasha snorted.
"Whatever," Koga said as Kaze's eye twitched in her anger. "Thing is, I've decided it's time I travel with you mutt."
"No way," Inu Yasha said, shaking his head and glaring at Koga.
"We're both after Naraku, why not join up?" Koga demanded.
"Because you smell like wolf," Inu Yasha snorted in reply, earning a hard smack to the back of his head from Kaze. "Ow!"
"Shut up," Kaze ordered. "We would love for you to join us," Kaze said, addressing Koga. "However, I must go make sure my house is standing, so play nice, canines." With that, she jumped down the well, pack in tow.