A/N: My niece is an one year old Demon Toddler. I hope one day she will be proud of ber aunt sneak writing all those stories while she's having a nap.
My lovely beta: Cstorm86

The Dog Gets Stuck

Inuyasha growled as he leaped forward, wind whipping his hair behind him as he ran across the yard and into the shadow of the forest. His cheeks no longer flamed with embarrassment of seeing his underwear used as a flag by this stinking asshole.

Now he was burning with the flame of just rage.

The youkai encroached on his domain without asking, played his vile pranks on him and humiliated him in front of his shrine keeper.

Blood was going to spill, and fast. He almost felt the taste of it running down his fangs.

The kitsune was fleeing in panic, shrieking as he dodged. The fundoshi was long lost in a bush, but Inuyasha didn't stop his pursuit.

He was going to make sure there wouldn't be enough fur to make a lucky fox charm for the gift shop.

Trees were moving fast past him as he leaped from branches and ran across the leaf-covered ground. The little stinker's orange tail was getting closer and closer, his shrieks of fear ringing in his ears.

The fox reached a stone wall of a cliff and with a yell of fright started to leap upwards it, climbing up it from one ledge to another. He threw a bunch of acorns at Inuyasha, who didn't even bother to dodge, small bursts of fire unable to harm him through his kimono. There was no way Inuyasha would let the brat get away.

Then, as the smoke started to clear from around him, Inuyasha pushed himself off of the rock ledge on the base of the cliff and...

...And felt a painful tug. Instead of propelling himself up a couple of meters he hit the rock that his hand was resting against.

With a confused, angry growl Inuyasha lifted himself up, but when he tried to move his hand away from the stone he found it stuck to it, his fingertips plastered over a paper tag with some scribbling on it. Blood dropped from his temple down the side of his face, but he ignored it, along with the pain.

"Heheh, stupid dog," the kitsune boy laughed from the ledge overhead. "Now you won't interfere! I'll kill the miko!"

With a roar of rage Inuyasha lashed out with his free hand, sending a youki infused attack at the cackling thing, that disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Inuyasha howled, realizing that he had been chasing a copy and that now Kagome was unprotected. With a growl he resumed his attempts to free his hand from the stone.

His miko, his shrine keeper, his Kagome was the fox's target. Inuyasha had a duty to protect her, more, he had this overwhelming desire to see her happy and safe, much stronger than all sense of affinity and obligation he had towards any shrine keeper that had come before her.

He glared at the enchanted paper that held him away from his precious charge.

Blood was going to stain the ground.

.

She covered her mouth with her hands A heartbeat later she heard a low, weird voice hissing from her side. A strong smell of smoke filled the air.

"Now, I will exact my revenge on you, miko."

At the same time a howl of rage could be heard from the forest.

With a gasp Kagome looked to the side to find a fox with its fur fluffed out and bushy tail held low, glaring at her from the counter. He stood on the cake tray, his paws blazing with blue fire that was burning Inuyasha's gift. When he saw her look his way he snapped his tail.

The drawer with cutlery opened and the acorns started to jump out of it, each changing in a cloud of smoke into a copy of the fox Staring with wide eyes Kagome took a few steps back, Her heart sped up and she felt a shiver run down her spine at the sight before her.

"What... What are you doing?" she asked. The ever growing group of foxes were following her steps, growling and baring their teeth at her.

As she walked backwards the foxes started to pour out of the kitchen, filling the engawa with fuzzy fur and deadly looking teeth. Green eyes were flashing with anger.

"Tell me what you did to my father, miko! Did you kill him? Did you let loose your worthless mutt at him?" the first fox leaped off of the ruined cake to join the pack.

"What? No, I didn't kill anyone!" Kagome cried out and barely dodged a spinning ball thrown by one of the foxes.

"Lies! You lying human!" the foxes ran after her, yipping and barking, and promising to burn her bones.

According to her grandfather there were two places in the shrine where youkai couldn't enter at least without permission. One was the inner shrine, where the deity resided and even priests couldn't just casually walk in. The other was the Sacred Tree meadow - and that was where she ran in panic trying to follow the guidance of her grandfather from the past. 'Inner peace,' she muttered to herself. 'Inner peace, otherwise the barrier will shatter...'

The pack of foxes snapping at her back and making all kinds of noises, weren't helping her concentration.

It quickly became clear to her that running into a forest while being chased by a pack of small and nimble predators wasn't a good idea. She was stumbling, her blood pounding in her ears and almost overpowering the sounds made by the noisy foxes.

One leaped at her and grabbed hold of her shirt sleeve, tearing a big chunk of it.

"Inuy-" the miko lost her balance and when her leg caught in a tree root she fell to the ground. The foxes almost immediately surrounded her, cackling and sneering.

"The mutt's not gonna help you, you dark priestess, you!" they cried. She looked up at them just in time to see a whole bunch of them leaping at her, claws and fangs glimmering in the dim forest light.

'Inner peace...!'

Without thinking she raised her hands to shield herself from the attacking youkai. Blue light flashed in between them and all the foxes were suddenly flying back, some disappearing in clouds of smoke after hitting trees or the ground.

"Huh?" Kagome looked at her palms, that no longer glowed. Her muscles felt a bit heavy, just like the day before, but she wasn't drowsy.

Oh no, she was very much not sleepy right now. Her heart was pumping adrenaline all through her body.

"Evil human!" the fox yelled at her and then a ball of blue fire appeared in his hands. "Try to stop this!"

The blue flames burst towards her and she screamed.

Then warmth engulfed her, but it wasn't nothing near that hot. Carefully, Kagome lifted her head and found herself covered with a red cloth, a few stray blue flames dying down in the wrinkles.

"Hijin Kessou!" the man standing over her roared and swiped his hand. Kagome gasped when she saw youki infused red projectiles fly off of his hand and hit almost all the foxes, causing them to explode in puffs of smoke and short yells of surprise and pain.

'Inuyasha!' she felt a wave of relief wash over her. She knelt up, holding the kimono around her. She knew that she had only known the hanyou for a short time, but somehow he provided her with a sense of safety, of everything being right in the world. After being pursued by a blood thirsty fox pack the sight of the pale mane and fluffy ears almost made her cry and cling to the hanyou's back.

"You mutt! How did you get free...?" the fox yelled down at them from a high branch. Inuyasha lifted the same hand he had used to attack earlier. It was bloodied and still dripping. The hanyou smirked a wicked grin. Kagome's eyes widened and she breathed out his name in a whisper, covered by the fox's gasp. "Holy shit... What kind of a half-breed are you?"

'Stay under my robe, Kagome,' the shrine guardian ordered and flexed the fingers of his other hand. His youki was making the air around them stuffy and heavy. "Time to die, brat."

"Help!" the fox suddenly changed into a form that resembled a boy Kagome had seen somewhere before, orange hair tied in a ponytail, tiny face now twisted in look of terror. He retained his tail and little paws instead of feet. The moment Inuyasha leaped towards him the boy took off, wailing for help. The last of the blue fire around her died down as she stared in the forest, now full of screams.

'It was just a boy...' she thought numbly. A child had attacked her, set on avenging his father. Father that, Kagome was sure of it, hadn't been slain by herself. After all, a miko who could handle an adult kitsune would have defeated the kid with her eyes closed.

It was clear to her that the boy was mistaking her for someone else. And judging by the sounds deep in the forest, if she didn't do anything, he would die thinking she was responsible for his parent's death. Kagome took a deep, albeit bit shaky breath and wrapped the borrowed kimono tighter around herself. For some reason having the thick red cloth wrapped around her she felt calm and safe. She was alright, just had a few scrapes here and there. She could just imagine the pain, fear, sorrow and distress the boy had to feel. Was he now alone? Could they offer him any help? It'd be best to start with leashing Inuyasha's blood lust, before the boy got injured.

'Inuyasha," she called out with her mind voice, backing it up with her reiki. He didn't reply, but she could sense him listening. 'Bring him to me and don't you dare hurt him.'

'Damn you, I wanna shred his fur!' he barked back at her, but she didn't argue with him, simply waiting on the forest floor, her legs folded under her. The yelling in the distance suddenly stopped and she lifted her head, worriedly butting her bottom lip. 'Got him, knocked him out.'

It was like not even a minute passed between that grumbled statement and the hanyou was leaping down from a tree limb to put the unconscious kitsune on the ground in front of her. Kagome smiled thankfully at the hanyou, who scowled at her darkly and glared at the fox. He pressed the boy's fluffy tail to the ground with one hand, obviously to prevent any escape attempts.

"It was just a misunderstanding, Inuyasha," she tried to reason with the hanyou, growling under his breath. "We both know I didn't kill his dad and when we straighten things up he won't be trying to harm me. I'm sure that when we talk he will change his thinking."

"His tail should be sent to Inari's shrine," Inuyasha growled. "You're my shrine keeper and I don't care what the brat thinks."

"I do care. Losing a parent is hard, especially since he's so little," she said, looking at the lax expression on the boy's face. "I mean... I was much older than he is when my dad passed away. Just think how sad and lonely he must feel," Kagome felt a pang of sadness when she thought about her own father, but refused to dwell on it, as always trying to focus on good memories she had with him. She had had her family to turn to in the months that had followed that day, but what if this boy had no one to lean on, to share memories of his dad? She could just imagine how distressed the fox boy had to be and prayed they could straighten things out. Maybe she could help him feel better? Or offer him a place in the shrine, so he'd be around friendly people?

"And losing a parent as a kid entitles you to attacking people, how?" Inuyasha asked, his voice uncharacteristically indifferent. She looked up to see him staring into the forest, his ears laid back.

"Inuyasha..." she started and reached for his free hand. Just as she touched his palm the hanyou hissed and pulled his whole arm away from her, close to his chest. She blinked at him and that's when she realized that his fingers were still covered in blood. "You're hurt!"

"Keh! The poor innocent boy you're so bent on keeping away from his punishment stuck me to a rock so he could kill you!" he growled, losing the aloof mask in favor of his previous angry expression. "Had to tear myself away before he could actually do that. Lost some skin on that fucking rock."

"He... did what?" she stared at him as he started to carefully lick his hand, wincing. 'He had to do... what?' "Hey! Don't lick it! We should disinfect and bandage it! Or go to the hospital!"

"Stop yapping and focus on the brat!" he growled, again pressing his limb to his torso when she tried to grab his wrist and see the injury. She blinked and glanced down to see wide, frightened and wet green eyes looking up at her.

"Um, hey, little kitsune," she smiled her best smile. "I'm Kagome and this is Inuyasha. Don't be afraid and tell me, what is your name?" she tried to speak softly.

"Do you need my name to purify me?" the boy asked, his voice high pitched.

"Oi, brat, she couldn't fend off your puny fox fire, do you really think she could purify your stinking ass? Or your old man's?" Inuyasha barked and the kit flinched at his outburst. "Instead of training she wastes her free time on some stupid writing!"

"Hey! Don't call my writing stupid, dog-boy!" Kagome cried out, blushing at the idea that the hanyou could read her works. 'That's it, no drafts and plot plans left where he could find them!' she decided. She ignored Inuyasha's scoffing at her nickname and looked back at the confused boy. "But he's right, I'm not very strong. Surely not on the level that I could take on an adult kitsune."

She looked at the hanyou bristling at her still and a memory came to her mind.

"But... We met a kitsune a while ago, his name was... Sha? Or Shen?" she tilted her head, trying to remember that encounter, but all that came to her mind was Inuyasha butting the fox mailman's tail and getting his fur electrified in retaliation. The boy's eyes lit up.

"Shi! My dad's name is Shi!" he exclaimed. "And I'm Shippou!"

"Shi," the miko nodded. "He said he was taking an exam and was going to stay around for a while, he was working as a postman. Inuyasha bit him on the tail and got zapped."

"Feh!"

"So... You didn't purify him?" the boy asked, tentative hope in his voice. She shook her head and smiled.

"I didn't. He promised not to cause trouble, so I wouldn't do it even if I could. I don't know why you assumed I'd hurt him," she said gently. "The last time I saw him he was fine:

Shippou's eyes got tearful and he blinked rapidly. "You... you're saying the truth? Dad's okay?" he asked in a tiny, hopeful voice. She beamed.

"Yes. He's alright, sweetheart," she assured the kitsune.

"And that thunderstorm was not from dad's battle with you?" he continued.

"No, it was something else. Not a battle, I promise. So you see, you don't need to try and harm me. Inuyasha, can you let go of his tail?" she asked the hanyou, who was mutely glaring at her. The shrine guardian didn't move, but looked at the boy under his hand.

"How did you get here? What assurance can you give that you will behave?" he asked.

"I ain't telling you anything, half-breed! Aah!" the boy first tried to look aloof, but then yelped when Inuyasha suddenly assumed his huge dog form and started growling and barking down at him. The boy tilted his head to the side, looking away and stopping his brief struggle for freedom.

"What are you doing?" Kagome gasped when Shippou replied to Inuyasha's growling with a whine.

'Silence. Teaching the pup to not offend those stronger than him,' Inuyasha replied, one ear tilting her way. 'Won't hurt him, you ordered me not to.;

"Oh," the miko sat back on her legs, relieved. A moment later Inuyasha was again in his humanoid form, crouching over Shippou.

"I came through a burrow in a valley to the South," the kitsune said. "And I promise to be good, I won't attack anyone and will not play big pranks. I swear!"

Inuyasha's hand lifted after a moment and the boy immediately leaped a few paces away. The miko let out a deep sigh of relief, glad that it all went so smoothly. Now they were going to be alright.

"Alright, now that this whole shit is sorted out, I'm going to go and eat my cake," the shrine guardian declared and stood up.

Kagome remembered the burnt thing on the counter and realized that Shippou would soon get another chance to run through the shrine forest.

A/N: Hope you liked it!