Chained: In More Ways than One
"Stay back. Back I say!"
Inuyasha raced through the trees always just in the demon slayers field of view so she could follow him. It had now grown dark as they'd traveled quite a distance and it was already late in the day by the time he'd picked up on the scent trail.
He didn't stop until he burst into a clearing where the trail seemed to end. The half demon looked around in confusion. The clearing seemed to be unoccupied until Inuyasha turned around only to see...
Sesshoumaru's companions sitting around a small fire; minus his older half brother and the Miko. Jaken's eyes grew to almost twice their usual size in surprise if that was possible while Rin had frozen eating with the meat half way to her mouth.
Both groups froze in surprise and just starred at each other until Sango arrived. She dismounted Kirara with Shippo on her shoulder. As she took in the scene all she could think was 'Oh god!' Knowing what was coming.
Once they all became unfrozen all hell broke those.
"Where is the Bastard?" Inuyasha yelled. Rin dropped her food in surprise not use to hearing such vulgar language as her lord didn't swear or raise his voice. Just about the complete opposite of how her lords half brother seemed to act.
Sango came up behind Inuyasha and smacked him in the back of the head. "Language Inuyasha. There is a child present." She pointed out the little girl that always followed Sesshoumaru around though nobody knew why except maybe his half brother himself.
Jaken started to run in circles in a panic before coming to his senses and grabbing his staff of two heads coming to stand in front of the little girl in a defensive position. Knowing if any thing happened to her his lord would have his head. "What are you doing here?"
Inuyasha subconsciously from that moment on started to leave out his usual vulgar language. " Sesshoumaru came through here not long ago and he had my Miko with him. Where are they?"
"I don't know what your talking about." Jaken acted as if he didn't know. Loyal to his lord to the very end.
"Don't act dumb! Tell me where they went. I know you know." Inuyasha started to advance on him.
"Stay back. Back I say!" Jaken punctuated each word with a jab of his staff in the hanyou's direction.
When that didn't work he tried to use the staffs fire attack but because Inuyasha was wearing the robe of the fire rat he was immune to the attack and managed to grab the toad by the back of his kimono and suspended him in the air at eye level.
"Tell me." Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at the toad as he shook him for emphasize.
"Never !" Jaken shouted in an over dramatic way.
Sango sighed as she and Shippo watched Inuyasha and Jaken's idiotic behavior from the side lines as he tried to get information out of the toad demon in a ineffective way.
The demon slayer was just thinking of stepping in when she felt a tug on her kimono. She was confused for a second as she knew it wasn't the fox kit because he was on her shoulder until she looked down to see the little girl.
"Excuse me Miss, but do you mean lady Kagome?" Rin asked politely. No one noticed she had moved from her spot at the camp fire in all the chaos.
"Yes, do you know where they went?" Sango asked as she kneeled down to the girls level.
"No! Don't do it." Jaken yelled once he noticed what the girl was going to do.
"Shut up." Inuyasha whispered so the child couldn't hear with clenched teeth as he covered Jaken's mouth with his hand.
Rin just stuck her tongue out at the toad demon not noticing his situation before continuing. "Rin is not exactly sure where they are going but Lord Sesshoumaru told me that I had to wait for him here and he'd return once he's finished with what he's doing. He always returns for me so if you want to see him you can just wait here."
"Is that all?" Sango asked. The girl made a thinking face before being interrupted.
"Why does their scents disappear?" Inuyasha asked curious how they could just disappear.
Rin made a face as she examined Inuyasha in a very Sesshoumaru like manner crossing her arms before answering. "I'll tell you once you let master Jaken go. I don't think he can breath."
Inuyasha looked at the toad to see that his face had a slight blue tinge to it and dropped him. Jaken was too busy trying to catch his breath to continue arguing.
Once Rin was satisfied that master Jaken was ok she answered her lords half brothers question.
"Well they flew of course." She started to run around with her arms out like bird wings.
Inuyasha was afraid of that. It's be almost impossible to track them once they were in the air.
Sango was a little shocked at how this little girl could go from acting so mature to seemingly being care free. "On what?" She question as she'd only seen Sesshoumaru in his ball of light which she didn't think Kagome could survive in.
Rin stopped running to answer as she stood behind the demon slayer. "The main reason my lord came back was to fetch Ah-Un."
"That's that two headed dragon thing isn't it." Inuyasha more stated than asked as he waited for conformation and received an enthusiastic head nod from the little girl.
"Why would he need the dragon?" Shippo asked. Curious if his adopted mother was ok.
Rin hadn't noticed the fox kit till now. "Lady Kagome had injured her ankle and was having trouble walking. You should have seen her trying to get on the dragon. She is quite clumsy so my lord had to throw her on." Rin said as she tried to hide her giggles with her hands.
Well that sure sounds like Kagome thought Inuyasha.
"How'd she become injured?" Asked a frantic Shippo.
"They were only here for a short amount of time but Rin managed to ask my Lord. He said that it happened before he found the Miko. That she was dropped by an ogre and managed to hit a tree." The girl made a falling motion with her hands.
Sango and Shippo turned around and glared at Inuyasha who was looking a little guilty at this moment before snapping at them. "Oh come on it isn't completely my fault. We all have a part of the blame to take for not paying attention to Kagome."
They both couldn't disagree with that statement and shook their heads. "Well what do we do now?" Sango asked with her eyes closed in concentration still in her kneeled position even though the girl was no longer in front of her.
"I say we bring them with us and go back to fetch the Monk." Inuyasha said as he walked up beside the demon slayer and looked down at her.
"I don't think my lord would like that very much?" Rin said in worry as she helped Jaken back to his feet.
Inuyasha noticed Jaken was going to intervene so when the girl wasn't looking he swooped in behind knocking the toad demon unconscious with a silent bop to the head. He knew it was useless to try and convince the thing and it was for the best this way.
"You said that Sesshoumaru always comes for you. I'm sure that he can find you whether you're here or some where else. He's even better at tracking scents than I am." Inuyasha grudgingly admitted knowing it might just push the girl over the edge to come with them willingly.
When Shippo noticed Rin was still on the fence on her decision he decided to intervene. He jumped from Sango's shoulder to stand in front of the girl. "It'll be fun. We could finally have someone our own age to play with."
"Ok!" Rin squealed as she hugged the cute fox kit while Shippo blushed in embarrassment. He wasn't expecting such a reaction from the girl that traveled with the stoic demon lord.
Once she released the kit she turned to confirm permission from the toad demon but gasped. "Oh no. What happened to master Jaken?"
"He's just…" Inuyasha had to pause to think of an excuse. "…napping. We better get going." He shrugged when Sango sent him a scathing look for lying to the child when he passed.
Rin didn't believe her lord's half brother because she wasn't that naive but she really wanted to go and knew master Jaken would probably try and stop her; so she let it slide and didn't ask any questions as they started to leave.
It was late in the night so the two children and Jaken slept on the back of the transformed Kirara as they followed back the path of broken trees that Inuyasha had left behind in his haste.
They decided it best to walk back even though flying was faster as to leave an easy trail for Sesshoumaru to follow once he decided to return for his pack. Hopefully with Kagome still with him.
"Are you sure this is such a great idea?" Sango whispered to not wake anyone as she lead the fire cat forward.
"Yah!…" Sango shushed him as she noticed the sleepers start to stir at the noise so Inuyasha lowered his voice also to a whisper. "…We can't track them the way I was doing before, so, now my half brother has to come find us."
Sango had to admit it was an ingenious plan but this wasn't just any normal demon they were talking about but Sesshoumaru, demon lord of the western lands. She wondered what his reaction would be to all this.
Because of the slow speed they where traveling they didn't arrive back at the hot spring till the sun started to already rise. Inuyasha wondered where the monk was because he didn't see him anywhere so he decided to enter the hot spring area.
"Wait here and watch them." He instructed the demon slayer as he started to climb through the surrounding bushes.
"Like I'd want to see the monk naked." Sango snapped back in a whisper as she petted the fire cat knowing he could hear her anyways. Inuyasha smirked and rolled his eyes at the demon slayers response before emerging from the bushes.
He scoffed and put his hands on his hips in a very Kagome like way when he spotted the monk. "Miroku, what are you doing back in the hot spring this early in the morning?"
"I never left! I decided I'd stay in here until you guys got back. Where have you been. My fingers and toes are all wrinkled." Miroku splashed the water in frustration.
"You've been in there this whole time. Why didn't you get out after we didn't come back after a couple hours?" Inuyasha berated the monk loudly forgetting about needing to be quite.
"Because…" Before Miroku could answer he was cut off by a disturbance from the other side of the bushes by a familiar squawking voice.
Inuyasha winced knowing it was his fault before dashing to help. "Come on Miroku."
"What happened. Where am I. Where did you take me women." Jaken was trying to hit Sango with his staff of two heads from the fire cats back by the time Inuyasha arrived. He took the staff away before using it to knock the toad unconscious once more.
Miroku was surprised once he arrived to see Sesshoumaru's two companions had joined there company. He looked around to see if the demon lord or Miko was anywhere in sight but found nothing. He opened and closed his mouth a couple time before stating. "You have a lot to fill me in on."
"Yeh." Inuyasha said before scratching his head.