Kagome headed west following the instructions of her master, The head priest Kenrou, to a Taijiya Village. She needed to train with the Taijiyas so that she could become a strong fighter and so she could protect herself and her neko companions.
The week that it took them to get there seemed to go by fast they kept up the routine of waking with the sun and meditating, Kagome always meditated for longer than the neko's.
Each time she mediated she felt something stir within her like it was waking up. Then when she would stop it seemed to sleep again. She always passed it off as her true powers stirring in her soul like they always did when she truly needed them. But consciously and subconsciously she realized that this was much different than that.
Then Akari and Kagaru would go and hunt for food. They would then eat, clean up the camp site, and go. They would talk some times but usually they would walk in silent contentment listening for danger or some one in need of help. They hadn't yet run into InuYasha or anyone that had any kind of connection to her life with him.
No. She hadn't seen Kouga. Or Sesshomoru. Or Naraku. She hadn't seen Sango. Or Miroku. Or even Kirara. Not Shippo. No one. Sometimes she would ponder why she hadn't seen any one from her past but then she would just count her blessings that she hadn't.
Then she would concentrate on other thing like the strange dreams she had been having they all seemed to follow after one another like she was living another life. She just passed them off like she did the stirring feeling since she had learned that it was possible to remember fragments of a past life when you had tapped into your true powers.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The Seventh Afternoon~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kagome and her Neko friends had just gotten back on the road after eating their lunch when they heard a rustle in the bushes. Just as she turned Kagome saw a small black blur race out of the bushes. She faced it just in time to have it jump into her arms. It was a neko manta. She caught the sounds of ragged breathing and some one running half hazardly through the forest.
The neko mewed playfully from Kagome's arms as it breathed heavily. Then a boy burst out onto the road and stopped running. He put his hands on his knees and leaned on them panting heavily. Kagome giggled lightly as she stroked the nekos soft fur. The boys head snapped up to look at her with wide eyes. He tensed when he saw she was a priestess and then he relaxed as he saw her own neko's and realized she wouldn't hurt his.
"H-Hello." he panted as he stood upright. "My name is Sosoukay."
"Hello. I'm Kagome." Kagome said kindly as she set the little black neko manta down.
"What are you doing around here?" Souskay asked as the little neko jumped onto his shoulder.
"I'm on my way to train." Kagome said kindly.
"Where are you headed, if I may ask." Sosoukay queried.
"I'm actually headed for a Taijiya village that's supposed to be near here." Kagome replied calmly.
"Are you looking for to train with the Imperial Taijiya Village of the West?" Sosoukay asked excitedly.
"Yes thats that's the one I'm looking for. Do you know where it is?" Kagome asked.
"Yeah I live there. I'll show you the way." Sosoukay said grinning happily.
Sosoukay showed Kagome the way and she was welcomed with open arms. She was happily accepted as a trainee the next day and because she had already learned so much about demons she got to skip to learning how to fight and handle weapons. She had to get up in with the sun and was allowed special permission to meditate before she went to classes. She only ever had to work with a weapon for a long as she needed to master it and because they only started at sunrise and ended at sunset only ever stopping for lunch she learned to master weapons very quickly. They started with reviews of the basic weapons and then moved to newer ones. They even taught her how to fight with her nekos.
Kagome had learned all they had to teach her in three weeks. She spent the next two with them learning how to forge weapons and making Several weapons for her self. The first weapon she had made for her self was Akinasigua.
Akinasigua was a sword forged from the fang of a Snow Dragon and Kagome's own spiritual power. This sword she made so she could channel her spiritual power into different attacks.
Kagome forged many small daggers that she hid in her Taijiya outfit and in her regular outfit as well.
~*~*~*~The End of fifth week in Taijiya Village~*~*~*~
Kagome was walking about in the evening with Akari and Kagaru. There was nothing special about that day. She had just finished her training with the Master Smithy in the Taijiya Village and knew she would have to leave the place soon so she could start traveling again and find the jewel shards. So she could complete the jewel and finally be able to wish Midoriko's soul free and purify the jewel once and for all.
Kagome lay down on a long thick fallen tree and relaxed in the sunlight. She closed her eyes and let the sun warm her body. She could feel the warm sensation of the sun on her skin sinking into her and making her feel warm on the inside as well. She could feel the heat of the sunlight trickling into her tensed muscles and relaxing them. She felt her Neko friends stretch out beside her in an attempt to soak up all of the sunlight that they could stand. The warmth of the sun started to make her feel drowsy and she began to fall into a peaceful sleep Akari and Kagaru following her example and slowly beginning to dose off when-
Crack!
A twig snapped some where in the forest. They all awoke suddenly to that sound but stayed still ready to attack but making themselves seem vunerable. Kagome heard two barley audible growls coming from her neko friends.
"What is it?" Kagome asked.
"Naraku."Akari and Kagaru hissed at the same time.
"Where? I can't sense his aura or any other demonic auras." Kagome said softly reaching down for Akinasigua which rested at her hip.
Suddenly a dark aura surrounded them. It was as though they had just released a barrier that had been covering their aura. Kagome hopped up Akari and Kagaru at her side already transformed. Quickly she drew Akinasigua from it's place at her hip and looked around for her enemy. The sunlight was gone covered by a dark miasma that could only belong to Naraku. The miasma immediately started to melt the plants and ground that it seeped into. Thick blobs of what used to be trees fell all around her but she focused. She felt the same stirring sensation of something waking within her. She tied her Taijiya mask on and continued her scan for the enemy. Slowly seven duplicates of Naraku seeped in from the new darkness of the melting forest.
She looked carefuly at the duplicates.
"Puppets." Kagome said to Akari and Kagaru. They were starting to cough from the miasma but they growled low in their throats all the same.
The puppets were cloaked in the fur and mask of a white baboon but had many thick long tentacles protruding from the bottom of their cloaks. She used her spiritual power to purify some of the miasma around them and waited for a puppet to attack.
Buzz...
The annoying buzzing of insects trickled into the back ground slowly growing louder until Kagome couldn't stay focused and had to look up to confirm her beliefs. So she looked up. True to her thoughts there were Saimyosho every where coating the sky with a blanket of the grotesque insects that waited obediently to take the jewel shards she possessed.
The puppets chose that moment to attack Kagome. They all threw their tentacles at her aiming to kill. Kagome jumped up to dodge but she was sliced in the arm by a tentacle that she hadn't seen until the last moment.
Kagome sliced at the tentacles with Akinasigua never missing her target. She jumped back a good twenty feet from the tentacles and swung Akinasigua making sure not to aim any where near Akari and Kagaru.
"Purifying Blades!" Kagome yelled and she launched blades of her spiritual power at the demon puppets. There was a large cloud of dust where Kagome's attack had hit but when it settled the puppets stood unharmed by the seemingly meager attack. They continued their assault on Kagome and her Neko friends. These Puppets were much stronger than the usual ones.
Kagome was about to try a different attack when a tentacle batted her side ways knocking her into a tree and ridding the breath from her body. Kagome gasped desperatly for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs.
The puppets took advantage of her stunted state and launched their tentacles at her again. Kagome was still to stunned to dodge the attack. Akari and Kagaru seeing this jumped in the way to block the attack from Kagome.
Kagome sat waiting for the pain to come but it never did. She looked up to see Akari and Kagaru had been stabbed by the poisonous tentacles. Tears pricked at her eyes as she watched the puppets shake the nekos off their tentacles like flies.
Kagome felt anger building up inside of her at Naraku who seemed to target everyone she loved and cared for. She could feel herself slipping into an inner power she'd never known she had possessed. She could feel that soft warmth that she knew to be her spiritual power rise up to her skin and become a blaze of anger. The stirring seemed to be burned by her power and hid again in the depth of her body where it always took residence.
Kagome fought for dominance but all she had to fight for was being hurt by Naraku. So she succumbed to the blaze of anger. Her spiritual power was released to it's fullest point. In response to the spiritual powers release a few things happened. Kagome's hair grew out to her waist and became slightly wavy with streaks of a light sparkling blue. Her eyes gained a rim of the same sparkly blue around her pupil.
Kagome ran over to Akari and Kagaru and put up a barrier aroung them. The puppets struggled against it and tried to get in it but failed.
Kagome was crying and trying to think of a way to save them but couldn't find one. Kagome felt her instincts take over and she chanted some thing under her breath trying to heal them but it wouldn't work.
"Akari what can I do? Isn't there a way to save you two?" Kagome begged.
"The kinship bond will allow you to heal us."Akari mewed weakly.
"What do I have to do." Kagome asked.
"Give me your hand. Kagaru and I will have to bite you. It will leave a family mark that claims you as our kin. You will be our sister."Akari mewed her breathing becoming labored.
Kagome held out her hands one to each of her neko friends. They bit down gently only enough to just break the skin and then pressed their nose to Kagomes bleeding palm. Kagome felt a jolt from their auras as a small amount of all three of their auras and powers mixed into each other. Something stirred within Kagome and turned into a searing pain. It felt like she was being shredded from the inside. She felt like something was trapped inside of her and was trying to get out. She felt a jolt of energy and power then pain receded turning back into the gentle stirring and she gasped for breath. Kagome recovered from the shock of power quickly and looked at Akari and Kagaru just in time to see them fall limp. Not dead just knocked out.
Kagome looked at her palms and gasped at what she saw. On her right palm where Akari had bitten her was a swirl of black stripes. On her left palm where Kagaru had bitten her was three black stripes like scratches streaked through the middle of her palm. Kagome looked up and noticed the puppets were getting closer to a barrier and Akari and Kagaru were getting worse. Quickly Kagome chanted the spell and purified the miasma in their bodies and then healed their wounds and Kagome felt the stirring that had started again pushed away by her spiritual powers. They stayed unconscious and Kagome kept a barrier around them.
She looked with in herself like she would to summon her spiritual power but this time found something else and drew an arrow. When she released the arrow it lunched forward with a powerful wind pushing it hard and a slicing water swirling around it. The arrow sliced through the hearts of three of the Demon puppets destroying them. Her eyes widened when she saw she had used Akari's power.
Again she looked within herself but this time she drew upon another source. She released the second arrow and it turned to stone with a small blaze of fire swirling arround it. This arrow sliced through the other four demons and Kagomes eyes were wide once again. She had been able to draw on the powers of her nekos. Was it because of the kinship bond?
Kagome didn't know but she realized that her world was beginning to fade. Her strength was spent. She managed to stumble over to Akari and Kagaru. Their breathing was much better now she noted. Black started to take over her vision. She heard the pounding steps of the demon slayers and then felt someone shake her shoulder but she had to surrender to the darkness that was trying to take over. She did. She was uncontious.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~Several Hours Later~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kagome groaned as she woke. She ached all over. Her muscles were sore and her head was throbbing. Slowly she realized she was no longer on the hard forest floor but on something soft. Opening her eyes Kagome saw the blank wooden roof of a hut.
"Uhhg..." Kagome groaned as she slowly sat up and looked around. She saw herbs and bandages.
Why am I in the healers hut,Kagome wondered as she put a hand to her throbbing head and closed her eyes.
"Kagome?"Akari's familiar voice mewed softly.
"Yeah?" Kagome asked not opening her eyes.
"Are you alright?"Kagaru's soft voice chimed in.
"I'll be fine in a little bit. I'm just a little sore is all." Kagome said with a soft smile. She felt a weight in her lap. Then a little more weight. Surprised Kagome looked down and saw Akari and Kagaru curled up in her lap. She smiled and stroked their fur gently earning soft purrs from them. Kagome leaned against the wall at her side and fell into a light sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~Three Days Later~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kagome had finally been let out of the healers hut and was glad for the opportunity to stretch her legs. Akari and Kagaru were walking with Kagome happily trotting by her side as she walked through the village saying hello to friends and familiar faces. As she walked Kagome heard Akari talking.
I hope she dosen't over do it. Kagome heard Akari say. Her voice seemed closer that it was as if Akari was saying directly into her ear.
"Don't worry I won't." Kagome said looking a Akari.
Akari paused looking at Kagome with a confused expression.
"You won't what?"Akari asked her voice back to normal.
"I won't over do it." Kagome said simply.
Akari's eyes widened.
"I never said anything about you over doing it."Akari said her voice stunned.
"Yeah you did. You said, 'I hope she doesn't over do it.' I heard you." Kagome said looking at Akari like she was crazy.
"No I didn't. Kagome I didn't say anything. I thought it."Akari said still sounding stunned.
Kagome blinked. "Wha... Y-You mean..." Kagome trailed off her eyes wide.
"Kagome you read my mind!"Akari said excitedly.
"But... But how could I... I mean... is it part of the bond! What else did the bond do! What else could it do!" Kagome asked suddenly dizzy with the posibilities of what could be going on with her powers and the rest of her. Something stirred inside of her. She felt it then. The same thing that had been bothering her since she had started increasing the time she had been meditating after she left the Miko Academy. It felt like it was growing.
~*~*~*~*~xXx~*~*~*~*~
Ha Ha Ha! Cliffy! Gotta love 'em. Well Read and Review my lovely readers. Oh and I'm actually sorry this Cliffy wasn't planned but the Chapter was longer than I though so I had to cut it off here. Luv Yas all! Really I do!