A/N: Just so you know, this shall, from now on, swap between Inuyasha, Kagome and third person P.O.V. Hope you like the chappy~! And sorry it took so long to update, but I was busy with school and making a cover for this, plus virus' and had to get a new charger to, sooo… Please don't bang down my door, fan gals! *Cowers in a corner*
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Inuyasha nor any other anime out there! Merry Christmas! Happy honica and a happy new year!
CHAPTER 5:
Kagomes P.O.V.
I clutched the knife tighter in my hand as I heard footsteps walking around the camp. My head was racing, thinking of any reason of why I shouldn't pounce right now.
'It could be Sango' I thought. 'Sango's footsteps aren't that heavy. It could be a random passerby. Why would they be skulking around our camp? It could be another bounty hunter. If that were true, I wouldn't hear any footsteps. Who the hell is this guy!?' I was just about ready to jump up and lunge when the person spoke.
"How long are you gonna pretend to be asleep, wench?" They said. I opened my eyes and sat up. I almost gaped at the boy I saw before me. Long, waist length silver hair with dog ears perched atop his head, claws that looked almost razor sharp and eyes as golden as sunlight. He was clad in a white shirt, brown pants and completely barefoot.
"Who are you?" I asked sternly, glaring at him.
"You gotta be kidding me, you don't remember?" He glared back. "I thought it' be kinda hard to forget."
"Not for her, it usually takes a night for things to settle with her. She pounced on me yesterday because I tried to wake her up. Nearly killed me." Sango said groggily as she sat up. "And you guys are really noisy…"
"Heh heh, sorry again." I said, embarrassed.
"Nothing I'm not used to. And this is Inuyasha." Sango yawned.
"Oh yeah! …Where's Shippo?" I asked.
"Look at your feet." Inuyasha said. I cocked my head and looked. Sure enough, there was shippo, at my ankles, curled up in a little ball. I chuckled.
"Silly little boy." I smiled but quickly wiped it from my face, lest fluffy ears see. He doesn't need to know I have a special soft spot.
Inuyashas P.O.V.
I stared at her through the corner of my eye. Though it vanished quickly, I was sure I saw a small smile cross the bounty hunters lips. She's a strange one…
"So, you're not just a werewolf, are you?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha looked somewhat confused. "Most werewolves don't have dog ears in their human form." Kagome explained.
"Yeah, so?" I asked. What exactly does she think she'll discover.
"So, what else are you?" She asked.
"Dog demon, what else?" I retaliated. Is she that oblivious.
"I don't know, you tell me." She snapped. "… How does a dog demon become a werewolf?"
"My dad was the dog demon, my mother was a werewolf. How much more obvious could it be?" I snapped back.
"It's not all that obvious." She glared.
"It's simple logic!" I snapped again.
"Well sorry if I'm not familiar with demon logic!" She shouted.
"Demon logic, is that what you call it!?"
"Give me one good reason why I should call it any different!"
"I could give you a hundred and it still wouldn't be enough, considering how thick you are!"
"Oh, I'm the thick one?! Who was it who left Shippo to fend for himself while someone ran away instead of protecting him too?!" She shouted as she got up and stomped over to get in my face.
"That has nothing to do with this!"
"So what, it's still not right! Would your father leave you alone while he ran for his life?!"
"How the hell should I know! I never even knew him!" I screamed at her. She froze as I glared down at her, panting in the cold winter air. (Yes, it's the middle of winter, close to Christmas, because I feel like it.) She just stared at me in amazement. Neither of us had even acknowledged how much our small quarrel had escalated over the past few minutes.
"…What do you mean you never knew him?" She asked, tediously.
"My old man died before I was even born, that's what. Maybe you should get to know someone before you start criticizing them about family." I snapped, my voice nearly cracking. Without another word I bounded off into the woods.
Normal P.O.V.
Kagome stood there for a few seconds, watching him transform and run into the forest. A full minute had passed, her staring at where he disappeared until she screamed and kicked a fallen branch as hard as she could. Miroku, who'd woken up in the middle of all the shouting, winced alongside Sango and Shippo, who also woke due to yelling.
"I'm such an idiot, I should have pieced something like that together… So stupid!" She yelled at herself before kicking the branch again and falling on her butt roughly to the ground, cupping her forhead in her hands.
"Red… c'mon, be fair, you couldn't have known-" Sango tried to calm down the other bounty hunter.
"He was right, I should really watch my mouth when I don't know the guy." Kagome interrupted her. Sango's shoulders slumped as she got up and sat next to her friend.
"You were just acting the way anyone would. Don't be so hard on yourself. It's not like you could've known." Sango said, squeezing Kagome in a one-armed hug.
"That doesn't change what I said. Geez, now I definitely can't kill him." Kagome grumbled.
"Wait, you were planning on killing him?" Miroku asked, defensively.
"No, I wasn't. I was planning to before I learned there might actually be something else behind his… problem." Kagome explained.
"Ah, well, back to the matter at hand, Inuyasha's always been a bit touchy on the subject of family. I'd expect that's the reason he snapped in the first place. His mother died not too long ago, his half brother is out to get him, and he was recently betrayed by a women. A bounty being added to his head has only made his temper worse and you just resurfaced many of those conflicts I more ways than one." Miroku explained nonchalantly.
"How so?" Kagome asked, intrigued now.
"Well, for starters, you reminded him of his parents deaths," Kagome winced. "And you seem to look like the women who betrayed him, not to mention you were hunting him, you took shippo-" He was cut off.
"Wait, what? I look like the women who betrayed him?"She asked.
"Oh, yes, I can't quite remember her name though. Was it Komicki, Ayano, Morino?" He questioned himself. "I've known far too many women." He laughed.
"Lech." The girls deadpanned and Miroku laughed nervously.
"Koroko? Nomini? Nyumi? Kiniko?" He kept questioning for a few more minutes, trying to ignore the girls blank stares.
"Kikyo." A sultry voice came from behind him. "That was her name, you lech." He grumbled.
"Ah, yes, Kikyo! That was her name. I believe she was a hunter like you two." Kagome and Sango looked at each other.
"You think it's her?" Sango asked.
"Looks like me, bounty hunter. There's no doubt about it." Kagome narrowed her eyes. "It's her."
"… What just happened?" Inuyasha asked Miroku.
"I have no idea." He responded before Sango picked him up and slammed him into a tree. "Hey!"
"How long ago did you see her?!" She interrogated him.
"What?"
"Answer me! How long ago and where!?" She repeated, slamming him harder into the tree.
"Uh, this forest, no more than seven weeks ago. Why, what's going on?" he asked as she let him go.
"Damnit, she's long gone by now!" Kagome screeched and kicked her branch for a third time. Then she stopped and looked at Inuyasha. He gulped.
"What is your affiliation with her?" She asked, getting in his face.
"Can we leave that for now? We've got bigger problems. There's another group of hunters just past the creek to the south." He informed.
"Bounty hunters?" She asked.
"Smells like it, they'll be here by noon, we have to hurry." He said as he scooped Shippo up.
"Don't they know this is my turf? I'll go scare them off, but you owe me an explanation when I get back!" Kagome declared, hauling her bag over her shoulder and tying her weapons to her belt.
"And why's that?" He snapped.
"Because she tried to kill my grandmother." She yelled back as she stalked off.
"And kidnapped my brother with my pet." Sango added as she packed her supplies.
"Why would the bounty hunters be scared of her?" Miroku asked as he put the fire out.
"Let's just say you don't want to screw with Kagome when she's in a bad mood… and this is the worst mood I've seen her in since Kikyo… never mind, let's just get going." Sango said as she swung her bag over her shoulder and walked off.
It wasn't long before Kagome ran across the other hunters. There were seven, burly men with fur armor and big, heavy crossbows that probably weigh more than they have draw back strength. She dropped her bag by a tree and pretended to be astonished as she stalked over to them and confronted them.
"And just what the hell do you think you are doing here?!" She called to them, catching them off guard.
"Hunting for a werewolf, what's it to you." One taunted.
"This is my bounty! Why are you here?!" She tried again.
"Kings orders. Besides, someone like you belongs in a tavern, not hunting bounties." Another smirked.
'The kings men? Why would he send them here?' Kagome thought.
"But, we'll let you stay if you promise to keep us entertained." A third cackled, followed by the rest of them.
"Hmm… sorry, I'm not in a very good mood right now, so why don't you walk out of this forest before something… unfortunate happens." Kagome warned, cracking her knuckles and neck. They just laughed.
"What? Was that supposed to scare us? Give me your best shot." He mocked. Kagome smirked.
"You're gonna regret stepping foot in this forest." She connected her fist with his jaw and knocked some teeth loose before kneeing him in the groin. He keeled over, giving her the perfect leverage to jump over him and box kick the next guy before anyone knew what had happened. Speaker number 3 grabbed her from behind but she grabbed his arm and flipped him over her into the box kicked guy. She kicked them over the head and elbowed speaker number one in the stomach before yanking his arm behind him and dislocating it. Then she spun kicked another in the groin, then punched him in the face.
She elbowed him at the nape of his neck as she noticed that two had pulled out their crossbows and ran 10 feet away. She pulled out her crossbow, rolled to dodge the first set of arrows and shot one at the one on the left, hitting him in the shoulder. She almost dodged another arrow, but it grazed her arm. She shot another arrow at the one on the right, hitting him in the chest. She smirked. 'Six down, one to go.'
She stood up and looked around, he was nowhere in sight. She furrowed her eyebrows. 'he was just here a second ago.' She thought. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder as she doubled over. She saw an arrow protruding from her shoulder. She looked up, sure enough there he was reloading his crossbow in the safety of a tree.
"What? Are you caught little girl?" He mocked as she looked around. "No where to run?"
"Come down and face me like a man!" She called.
"You, know, I've heard stories about you. The little girl from a small village becoming a strong bounty hunter. Doesn't come back from the job unless she's completed it, even if she doesn't have any supplies left. Never letting another bounty hunter in on her bounty, striking fear into bandits everywhere. Red riding hood, the blood butcher." He smirked, using her given title.
"So, shouldn't you be cowering at my feet by now, begging for mercy?" She taunted.
"No, I think I'll stay up here, watch you bleed to death if the poison doesn't get to you first."
"What?" Her eyes widened.
"And to think, you'd be taken down by a lowly bandit like me." He laughed. Kagome shot him with her arrow. He fell out of the tree to his death.
'Poison? 3 days into this mission and I'm already poisoned. Must be a new record. I need to get back to the others.' She thought. She didn't even get a single step further before she collapsed to the ground. 'So this is it, huh? Killed by a bandit posing as a bounty hunter. How sad.' She thought as her eye lids began to flutter closed. Just before she fell into darkness, however, she heard a boy call her name, and then… silence.
A/N:Okay, Happy holidays, this is my Christmas gift to you, hope you enjoy it. It's two thirty in the morning, 2 ½ hours into Christmas, hope you like, good night.