Hey guys! Here's the next installment. Thank you for being so patient with me while I get this written.
The next chapter is being written as I type so, it should be out soon.
In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Chapter 18
A thick miasma covered the area. Nothing moved or made a sound, it was so oppressive. And nothing could permeate the fog that clung to the ground and trees. No matter where you went or turned, you only saw the fog and felt the oppressive aura.
"What news do you bring of the hanyou, Matsudaira?" the voice drifted out through the fog. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"The hanyou's twin has whelped a pup," the other voice, that must be Matsudaira, said, "but she presented it before the Elvin Court before we could do anything."
"It changes nothing! I will just kill the pup as well." the first voice spat. "It makes no difference to my plans. Now, just get them back to Japan."
"Yes, my lord." Matsudaira replied.
AHLAHLAHLAHL
Kagura shot up in bed with a sheen of sweat glistening on her body. Her heart thundered in her chest as though it had just been released from a vise-like grip. She looked around the room quickly as though she wasn't sure of her surroundings. The dream had felt so real; almost too real for her well-being. And the more she puzzled over the dream and what it could possibly mean, one thing began to make itself very clear. She knew that voice. It was the same voice that had haunted her and held her captive for years. "Naraku."
AHLAHLAHLAHL
"Are you sure that it wasn't just a bad dream?" Inuai asked timidly, already fearing the answer from the looks on her family's faces.
"No, it was not." Sesshomaru said. His voice sounded strained, forced even, as though it was painful for him to talk about it.
"How can you be so sure of it?"
"Inuai," Kagura said softly, reaching for the young hanyou, "why don't we go for a walk, and I'll explain everything."
"What? Are they too afraid to tell me?" Inuai spat out as she stomped to the door.
"Yes and no." Inuai shot Kagura a questioning glance, wondering where this was going. "For one, this is my story to tell, not theirs, and two, it pains Sesshomaru to hear it." Kagura said simply and gently.
"You mean to tell me, that something actually hurts Fluffy?" Inuai asked incredulously.
Kagura chuckled at her sister-in-law. "Unfortunately, yes. But it hurts his pride more than anything." The wind sorceress glanced at Inuai before trying to explain the connection to Naraku. "I know that you've heard about Naraku from your brothers, but they don't know about the inner workings of his mind."
"And that's where you come in." It was more of a statement than a question, but Kagura nodded nonetheless. The look on the hanyou's face gave Kagura pause as if she were holding something back.
"Naraku... he's what you might call a father to me. It's because of him that I'm here." Kagura said softly, an unreadable expression on her face. "But he wasn't a father in any other sense of the word. He sent me to do his dirty work, especially when it concerned Inuyasha or Sesshomaru. And I had to do it even when I wasn't willing to do so."
"But why did you do his bidding when you didn't want to?" Inuai asked confused. The Kagura she knew was strong willed and would never be curtailed into doing something she did not want.
"He held my heart in his hand." Kagura sighed.
"Wait! You loved him?" Inuai cried, shocked at what she was hearing. "But I thought you were Sesshomaru's mate."
"Of course, I am!" Kagura chuckled. "I never said I wasn't."
"But you said.."
"That Naraku held my heart in his hand?" Kagura finished for the now, throughly confused hanyou.
"Yeah." Inuai said quickly. "I mean, it kinda implies that you loved him."
"No, I didn't. When I say that he had my heart, it's quite literal."
"So, if you tried to defy him?"
"He'd close his hand around my heart and squeeze until he decided that I had learned my lesson, and then he sent me anyway."
"I can't imagine what that must have been like." Inuai said, looking wide eyed at the woman walking beside her. "How did you do it?"
Kagura smiled wryly at Inuai. "I bided my time. I knew, after one meeting with your brothers, that they would be able to take Naraku down and free me."
"But you weren't the only one of Naraku's 'children', were you?" Inuai asked wisely, taking in the sorrowful expression on Kagura's face.
"No, there were many others, including my sister, Kanna." Kagura said, her voice hitching with emotion. "She was too close to Naraku to be saved." A tear slowly made its way down her cheek.
"I'm so sorry."
"It was her choice to stay. I think... I think she loved him in her own way." A tense silence settled over the two women as the walked along the lake shore. Inuai came to a stop and leaned against a tree, the same tree that she used to sit under with the Marauders, staring out across the lake as the giant squid lounged near the surface. Kagura stopped to look back at the young woman, noticing the melancholy look on her face. "Something's bothering you." she stated.
"Hmmm?"
"There's something bothering you." Kagura said slowly. "Something that you're not telling us."
"It's that youkai Naraku was talking to." Inuai said softly. "I know him."
"So, he is a youkai then. I wondered." Kagura replied thoughtfully. "So, how do you know him?"
Inuai sighed. She had a feeling it would be easier to talk about this with Kagura than anyone else. "We grew up together. I guess you could say we were siblings." At Kagura's expectant look, she continued. "Believe me when I say that there's no love lost between us. He blames Inuyasha and I for the deaths of his family."
"But you were just babies! You're hardly responsible for that fire!"
"You know that, and we know that. And deep down, I think he knows that, but he's not willing to admit it to himself. Because, in his mind, we shouldn't have survived that night because we're hanyous. We're not as strong." Inuai explained. She never took her eyes off the lake. She spoke in a monotone voice as if she were on autopilot.
"You two are proving him wrong all the time," Kagura said knowingly, "and it pisses him off."
"We proved him wrong the night we were born." Inuai said, smirking a bit at the sorceress. "It's always the same. We get hunted down because we're not as strong or too strong. When will it change?"
"I wish I knew that myself." Kagura sighed. She looked up at the majestic castle as the students came pouring out to enjoy one of the first nice days of spring. "Come, we need to head back in. Your class will be starting soon." she said as she turned toward the castle.
"You know who Matsudaira is, did you know?" Inuai stated, turning to look directly at Kagura.
"Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure I'd remember him if I had met him before." Kagura replied absently as she tried to remember him.
"You've met him before, but by a different name." Inuai said as she pushed herself away from the tree.
"And what name is that?"
"Andrew." Inuai said simply, brushing by the wind sorceress and making her way to the castle.
AHLAHLAHLAHL
"Andrew!" Inuyasha bellowed as he paced in front of the fireplace.
"Inuyasha, please calm down." Kagome said softly, trying to get her mate to sit down.
"That filthy, no good, son of a bitch!"
"If you don't clam down, you're going to wake Siri, and I'll use 'it' on you." Kagome threatened. Inuyasha paled at the threat, but sat down with a disgruntled look on his face.
"So, what do we do about him?" Sesshomaru asked, his mask firmly in place. There was no need to have two tempers flaring right now, and Inuyasha was hot headed enough for the both of them.
"We can't do anything yet." Inuai said softly.
"Whaddya mean, we can't do anything?" Inuyasha yelled, jumping up from where he had been sitting.
"Inuyasha." Kagome growled in warning. The hanyou quickly sat back down, not wishing to be on the receiving end of his mate's wrath.
"He doesn't know that we know he's working with Naraku." Inuai replied calmly. "So, we do nothing to blow the cover off his ruse."
"We act as if we know nothing until he makes a wrong move." Sesshomaru commented sagely.
"Exactly."
"So, how fucking long are we gonna have to wait for this baka to fuck up?" Inuyasha growled impatiently.
"As long as it takes."
"Fine, now can we at least go blow off some steam in classes?" Inuyasha said, making his way toward the door.
"You two go ahead and get the students warmed up," Kagura called out, "we still have something to discuss." Inuai sat back down slowly, an uneasy look on her face.
"Don't be worried," Kagome said calmly, gently laying her hand on Inuai's knee, "we're just curious about your markings."
"My markings?"
"Your markings don't exactly look like your family's." Kagura started.
"How so?" Inuai was confused as to where this conversation was going. My markings are perfectly normal, right?
"Well... they're green."
"Yeah. It's no big deal." Inuai said, standing up as though everything was taken care of.
"But why?" Kagome asked, halting the hanyou's progress. "Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's markings are a dark red, almost maroon."
"Well, I am mated to an elf." she said as if that solved it. "Are we done now? Cuz I have a class to get to."
"Just one more thing," Kagura said as she stood up, "more of a favor really."
"What?" she sighed.
"Can we see your mate mark?" Kagome asked, hope shining in her eyes.
"W-w-what?" Inuai stuttered out, her blush deepening on her cheeks.
"If it'll make you feel any better, we'll show you ours."
Inuai sighed and nodded. Kagura and Kagome squealed as they clapped their hands. Kagura turned around and slipped her kimono down enough to reveal the mark just below the base of her neck. It looked like a simple tattoo of a crescent moon around a whirlwind. Kagome lifted up the left side of her shirt to reveal what looked like a new moon with a sacred arrow being shot in front of it.
"Ok, but no comments." Inuai said as she pushed down the right side of her hakama to show the mark on her hip. It reminded the two women of a solar eclipse with the rays coming off the circle, only in negative, and a bright green elvin leaf over the top.
"Thank you, Inuai," Kagura said, "now you'd better get to your class."
"Yeah, you never know what those two bakas are doing right now." Kagome smirked.
AHLAHLAHLAHL
The trio walked slowly back up to Gryffindor Tower. "I thought you said it'd get easier once Merry got back." Ron puffed as he struggled to get his breathing back under control.
"I never said it'd be easier," Harry replied, "I just said it would be better." Ron just stared open-mouthed at his friend before spitting out the password and stomping up to the dorms. It was true that the classes hadn't gotten any easier since Merry had started teaching again, but it was a bit better. Although she didn't let her brothers run them ragged, they weren't allowed to slack off either.
Flashback
"Alright, ladies and gents. Let's see what you've learned in my absence." Inuai called out to the sixth year class. "And if I feel that you've been slacking, you're in for a really tough couple of weeks."
The class was quickly split up into three groups and sent to work as Inuai made the rounds. "Tighten your grip on that sword!" "Widen that stance!" she shouted out to the students as she continually shot glares at her brothers.
"Okay, that's it for today." Inuai finally called out. "You didn't do too bad, but I didn't see a lot of improvement either. So, next class, you all will be working your butts off until I'm happy with your progress." Groans went up as everyone gathered up their bags and left the classroom. "Harry!" Inuai called out just before the trio stepped out of the room. The green eyed young man turned to look at his professor. "Don't forget." Harry merely nodded, his eyes suspiciously bright, before following his friends.
End Flashback
"So, Harry," Hermione began, pinning him with a look that dared him to lie to her, "what are you supposed to remember?"
"Huh?" came his elegant reply.
"Before we left, Merry told you 'Don't forget.' What was that about?"
"I'm supposed to meet with her tomorrow morning." Harry said somewhat reluctantly. "She wants to take me before the Elvin Court."
"I thought only her children had to go before the Court." Hermione said absently, trying to remember what she had researched in the library after seeing them in the Great Hall.
"Well," Harry hedged, his cheeks pinking a bit, "she and Legolas want to adopt me."
"Oh, Harry! That's wonderful!" Hermione cried as she threw her arms around him. Harry blushed deeply as he hugged her back awkwardly.
"Yeah, at least I won't have to go back to the Dursley's." Harry grinned. "And Merry's coming to King's Cross with me to tell them that I'm not going back with them ever."
"Harry," Hermione said softly. "Does this mean you won't be staying with the Weasley's before school starts?" Harry looked at his friend, wondering why she would be blushing for asking an innocent question.
"I don't know. I guess it's something I'll have to discuss with Merry."
"Okay." Hermione said a little sadly. "Well, I guess I should go get that essay done for Ancient Runes."
Harry watched as Hermione stepped back a couple of paces before turning on her heel and walking to the stairs leading to the girl's dorms. "Hey, Mione." Hermione turned to face him with a questioning glance. "Could you, um...I mean, would you, er, meet me in the Room in an hour?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure." Hermione smiled, biting her lower lip. Was he nervous? She thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. Why would he nervous?
AHLAHLAHLAHL
"So, when do you suppose we should tell Ron?" Hermione asked as she looked up at Harry.
"I forgot all about him!" Harry exclaimed, a fearful look on his face. They both knew that Ron had fancied Hermione for years, and they didn't know how he would react to the news that they were a couple.
"How about we tell him about us when you get back from Mirkwood?" Hermione suggested hopefully.
"Okay," Harry grinned, "you'd better get back to the Common Room now, it's almost curfew."
"What about you?" Hermione questioned.
"I'll just stay here. Besides, I think I could use a good night's sleep without Ron's snoring." he said, chuckling a bit.
"Okay," Hermione sighed, heading for the door, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"It'll be okay, Mione." Harry said, grabbing her wrist and turning her to face him. "It might take awhile, but Ron will understand." He brushed a bit of hair out of her face to hook behind her ear as he leaned down to brush his lips over hers. "Night, my Mione."
Blanket disclaimer for A Hanyou's Life:
I don't own anything you recognize. If I did, my daughter would be extremely spoiled.