InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Intertwined ❯ The sickness starting it all... ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: All characters are products of Rumiko Takahashi, and Yoshihiro Togashi's minds, not mine.

 

A/N: Have patience with me; I've never uploaded but one story on here. Forgive the formatting if it is off…I will learn it eventually...^_~ Drop me a review if you feel the need to give some useful input.

(ie: flames are moronic)

 

 

The Intertwined

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

 

`How could this possibly be happening?' Kagome thought to herself in amazement with another wince of pain. She knew that the pain wasn't her own.

 

She instinctively looked down on her body where she could feel the pain coming from, though she knew there would be nothing there to merit the stinging sensation.

 

Closing her eyes against another painful extraction of porcupine quills that Sango was undergoing, Kagome sat quietly in the corner of the room next to Inuyasha as Kaede reached for another of the fat needles sticking out of Sango's welted and sorely abused hip.

 

Opening her eyes to look around the room, she looked to Inuyasha briefly to find his expression pained for Sango's ordeal. When he noticed her eyes on him, he returned the gaze with worry. She saw the unvoiced question in his face.

 

 

Yes, he could see clearly the sweat on Kagome's brow as she withstood her shared feeling with Sango.

 

It was amazing; not only the situation their growing group was now in, but the combined strength of both of the women as they withstood each other's feelings, pain, and other various changes from the strange bond they'd somehow acquired.

 

It was hard for Inuyasha to remember the last time he'd been this concerned for either of the women.

 

Years had passed since that gangly naïve girl stumbled upon him in his forest. Since that time, she had earned enough knowledge of survival in the feudal era to protect herself better, and Inuyasha had begun to breathe easier for it. Sango was another matter; she'd always been pretty capable of staving off danger on her own.

 

Still, the new territory they had all found themselves in was boggling, at the very least. Inuyasha hated not being fully aware of the state of health of every pack member.

 

With another restrained hiss at the stinging extraction reaching his ears, he slid Kagome another look loaded with his silent question.

 

Kagome was afraid to open her mouth to answer. She feared she might scream if she did. Kagome's line of vision momentarily dropped back onto Sango's hip again before she looked up to Sango's strained face. If Sango can go through this ordeal quietly, I will stand strong with her.

 

Turning back to Inuyasha, Kagome nodded once for the reassurance he wouldn't dare ask for as she tried to ignore another pull of the quills from Sango's hip.

 

 

She cursed, not for the first time that night, the porcupine demon that had more or less ambushed them while at the springs earlier in the night. Fortunately their guard, reluctantly allowed under the circumstances, had gotten them out of there before the lowly demon could strike again or invite its buddies.

 

They figured at first that it was mindlessly after the jewel as usual, but it had attacked Sango first, contradicting that theory.

 

Those kind of attacks always made a bee-line for Kagome's neck—where their current share of the jewel lay.

 

When the knee-jerk theory of the attack was thrown aside, the group tried to consider other causes for the attack: Had the women's scent drawn the animal at the time of the attack? What about their power? Porcupines aren't territorial, and had obviously been drawn to their location from somewhere else; they weren't indigenous to the immediate area.

 

With this information on their attacker, the most probable cause was drawn down to scent and/or aura. According to the demons, they were fertile at the time. It was a bit embarrassing, but it was the truth of the matter.

 

Most of them had hopes that the attack was simply a fluke, but the girls felt it had something to do with their new, as yet, unknown status of life they were now a part of. Miroku had mentioned that he'd felt a shift in their combined auras shortly after they all had endured a mind-blowingly frightening session with Naraku that changed things for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

It had been a little over a month ago when the Inu-tachi's normal routine had deterred from normal. It started with the first case of sickness that Inuyasha felt coming off of one of the villagers. He knew the identifying scent of certain types of illnesses—all of them had their own signature. Kagome had said before that the difference he could smell between the illnesses were dependent on whether they were viral or bacterial, whatever that meant. Though apparently, the common sickness that struck every winter was one of the viral variety.

 

This was no scent he'd ever encountered before in a sick human. After checking over the man for her opinion on the matter, Kagome had found that she was stumped by the man's symptoms as well.

 

The man couldn't breathe well, and had no feeling in his extremities. This was understandable since his fingers had begun to turn black. The illness had come about quickly, and continued to slowly advance in symptoms. The man had been sick for a matter of one week or so and his health continued to deteriorate. Kaede had scoured her herb garden for common herbs that would relieve some of his aches, but they knew nothing of what might cure the strange infection.

 

When four more villagers came to them soon after the first instance, they'd known they needed some more help.

 

After admitting to their need, everyone decided that the best person to go to for any possible solutions was Jinenji, the kind half-demon who tended an extensive herb garden with his human mother. They had a wide range of knowledge of ailments and the corresponding herbs to treat them.

 

With hopes high for a miracle cure, Inuyasha took the lead in the direction of the village that Jinenji and his mother lived in.

 

 

 

“My dear Sango, I was merely shaking the tension from my hand. Such tension results from carrying a shakujou. I would expect the Hiraikotsu causes the same, I'm sure you understand.”

 

In the front of the procession, Inuyasha rolled his eyes when he heard this, expecting the nearly inhuman growl that Sango had taken to emitting when that familiar hand found its favorite resting place.

 

Sango felt no such calmness, “You feel like touching me again, monk, you'd better think about a new pick-up line, got it?” With that, Sango dropped back, out of Miroku's direct line of vision, to walk with Kagome in the back.

 

Kagome shot Sango a look as she was joined by the woman who'd become the sister she never had. A jet black eyebrow went up to accompany the knowing smile on her face as she looked at her.

 

Sango blushed prettily and offered her own shy smile in answer. She'd always known that Kagome could see right through her…

 

“What? I'm sure you like it when it happens to you, too. And don't lie to me, I can see through it,” Sango challenged with a wagging finger. She dropped her voice further, “Face it, Kagome. We have passed the age when most girls have already had children. It's embarrassing to me to admit so, but I do wonder.”

 

Kagome turned her face back to the road and snuck a look at the red figure at the front, “Yes, I suppose I could admit to the same.”

 

“What are you two mumbling about back there? You're distracting enough already, but that only makes it worse!” Inuyasha growled, not realizing exactly what it was he'd just said.

 

Now, Kagome knew enough about Inuyasha's quirks to realize that he'd yelled at them to quiet down because he had caught a new scent. Sango, too, had reached the same understanding of Inuyasha's body language, and had already begun scanning the surrounding foliage, habitually fingering her weapon.

 

As the group caught up to Inuyasha's figure standing with his nose in the air, he shared what it was he was catching in the air.

 

“We're gettin' close to a claimed territory. The youki signature of it is surrounding the place, so we gotta go around it. If we don't, we have a good chance of gettin' the kind of attention we don't need right now.”

 

Kagome watched him in approval; he had obviously grown some in their long search and continuous battles. Though four years was a mere hair's width of time for a demon, Inuyasha had done some considerable growing up through the trials they'd all had to face together.

“Stupid humans, always gettin' sick,” Inuyasha crashed through Kagome's praising thoughts with that mumble. He sure wined a lot for an adult…

 

 

 

 

 

He'd felt them approaching for quite some time. The lithe, solid body dressed in fine white silk was perched on a fat branch a couple dozen feet above the ground.

 

Used to creatures generally steering clear of his aura, he tended to keep it reigned in tightly, along with his scent for good measure. They were blocked fairly effectively by a charmed pendant he kept on his person that his best friend in the world had carried everywhere when he was alive. His scent couldn't completely be blocked; no one's could without special barriers, and only at very close range would it be detected. Though at such a range, he would be seen anyway. His territory was simply maintained by his vast youki signatures set in place. His physical presence strengthened them during visits like this one, and that was simple enough for him. He did need animals around for hunting, after all.

 

It was a slow time for him in the world of thievery, so he had felt it was as good a time as any to revisit his territory and solidify his claim on it.

 

But he was bored.

 

One silvery ear twitched as he inspected his claws from his spot reclining against the trunk of his chosen tree.

 

He had thought about pulling back his youki perimeter to see what the group approaching would do about the change. Before he'd had a chance to do so, however, they began turning away to go around it.

 

Youko frowned as he continued his perusal of his elegant fingers.

 

Damn. He wanted something to do. Observing an oblivious, and frankly quite unusual group of people, could be quite amusing. Thus, he came to a quick decision about the opportunity presented to him in the form of three humans, two demons, and one hanyou…from what he could vaguely read from this distance. Youko shot off of his branch with nearly unparalleled grace toward the unusual party.

 

As he neared the mismatched group, he began picking up a mixture of altogether mesmeric scents. Some of which were unidentifiable to his seasoned nose. This alone piqued his curiosity; something which kitsunes were renowned for, of course.

 

Since going around his youki markers would mean forcing the group to backtrack a bit, Youko figured he'd have a good two or so days of entertainment from the strange assembly traveling through the area. He might even stretch his territory while they slept to lengthen their stay.

 

Passing a crystalline river that ran under a thick canopy of trees, he started to hear the voices of the strange assembly beyond it.

 

“Please? I promise I won't make a peep and I won't touch anything; I only need to refill our canisters. If we plan to eat ramen tonight, we need more water. We've already run out of jerky,” a woman was obviously pleading to one of her escorts.

 

Youko scanned the group that had finally come into view, and promptly thanked himself for giving in to his curiosity.

 

His golden eyes roamed the four adult members appreciatively, then scanned the remaining two accompanying them. There were two delicious women, two attractive men, a kit, and a fire cat.

 

He cocked his head in slight confusion. Why was a kit traveling with a pack like this at such a young age? The obvious and immediate answer was that he was an orphan, and the thought saddened him that the little one had to go through such a thing as loosing a loved one. Youko had learned more than once what that was like, and once again only recently. His best friend and partner had died on a heist just last fall.

 

Kitsunes thrived on companionship, and if a kit's parents died it would seek out to replace the lost feeling. Species didn't always matter; so long as there was compatibility. This young kit seemed to be doing that very thing, but on a higher level than simple companionship. He couldn't help but notice that said kit was clinging possessively to one of the human women as one would to its own mother during travel. Of course, Youko amended readily, were he acquainted with the woman, he'd be clinging to her as well; but in an altogether different way.

 

The young woman wore the strangest kimono he'd ever laid eyes on in the brightest colors possible. He lifted an eyebrow when the girl stomped her foot in frustration at her companion. Such movements shook that little garment about her waist delightfully, giving him glimpses of creamy tummy. Almost gave him a pretty good shot of tush, too.

 

His eyes slid over to the second woman standing next to the first with her arms crossed and an adorable look of stubbornness painted on her face. She carried a gigantic boomerang; nearly as big as she was, `How does she carry such a thing? It looks to be made of bone; that thing should be far too heavy for her.'

 

She wore a more conservative kimono of pink and white with a green sarong tied about her waist. Her hair wasn't jet black as the first girl's was, but an incredibly dark chocolate-black. This girl also carried a small passenger, but instead of a kit, she carried the two-tailed neko.

 

Youko eyed the neko carefully. The neko was looking in his direction, and seemed to know that he was there. This stumped him slightly since the cat wasn't alerting her group to his presence, but he got the impression that the cat was simply letting him know that she could. Foolish cat.

 

“I told you, wench, you ain't goin' in there, and that's final!”

 

The intrigued kitsune's glowing eyes turned to the gravely voice still refusing the first woman's request. Apparently, she wanted to enter his youki marked territory to obtain some water from his creek. Nothing he minded of course, so long as one respected the area. Youko grinned mischievously; he could drop back his perimeter and let them get some water now, ending the argument…but the interaction was so very amusing, and he wanted to watch it longer.

 

“Inuyasha!” The girl was beginning to look awfully mad, while simultaneously managing to sound pitifully defeated. His grin grew. Oh, she was goooood.

 

“I ain't gonna let you in there to get gnarled by whatever's put this thing up if I can prevent it, got that?” Inuyasha still refused her.

 

Youko looked over this man who he now decided was the hanyou energy he'd felt earlier. He twitched a quick brow; the hanyou had similar attributes to his own, so naturally he was a beautiful being, though he had no tail. His hair was whiter than silver, and his ears were a bit smaller, too. From his distance, he could tell that the eyes were also near the same shade as his golden. Youko figured this “Inuyasha” was a canine of some kind, but definitely not a silver fox like himself. He looked like a simple inu half-demon. Smelled like one, too.

 

His study of Inuyasha was interrupted when the woman he'd been denying let loose an incredibly remarkable imitation of a growl for her frustration at the battle she seemed to be loosing.

 

Youko sighed; he supposed he had had enough of this particular argument. It was time to let them in and get to other exchanges between everyone there. He briefly wondered how they would react to his presence were he to give them the privilege of viewing him.

 

He slowly pulled his youki to the back edge of the desired location and influenced the grass in the area to thicken for everyone's arrival. He never missed an opportunity to show off his territory and soak in the corresponding approval.

 

Almost immediately, Inuyasha and the strange human-vixen stopped their death stares and looked in the direction of the creek.

 

“I believe we have been granted permission for a brief pass. Shall we?” the last adult announced to his team, beginning to lead the way.

 

Finally, Youko looked over the final member who'd spoken; the second adult male in the group. This one, however, was all human. He did have strange energy coming from him, but that felt foreign. His clothes were that of a monk, and he gripped a staff in his hand.

 

`These travelers...' All at once, Youko simply had to know what had brought together such a strange pack.

 

He stood on his branch as they moved on and then followed them closely as they cautiously made their way in the direction that Inuyasha was leading them.

 

At one point in time, the kit piped up with a question to his surrogate mother, though he did seem to be quite attached to both women, about an item called “candy”. Apparently this “candy” seemed to be a treat of some kind, as the child was told he'd have to wait until they ate.

 

Well, now he would have to peruse the woman's unnaturally colored pack to find this treat. Not enough to deprive the kit of course, but now he simply had to sample it.

 

Pausing on a sturdy oak to watch them pass under him, he thought to study the kit that clung to the human woman dressed so indecently.

 

`Not that I mind, of course,' he thought as he tilted his silver head to the side to peek easier as she navigated over a log. Quickly returning back to the matter, he traveled his eyes up the girl to the kit who was seated on her shoulder. He was a red forest kitsune from the looks of it. Not terribly uncommon, but still treasured for their pelts by hunters. With a frown, he considered that to possibly be how he had been orphaned. It had been how his own parents were lost, as well as how most kits got orphaned. Of course, once he'd come of age, that group of hunters regretted ever taking the silver kitsune pelts.

 

Shaking off his thoughts, he leapt to the next copse of trees to catch up with his new entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

“I don't like it, Kagome. I still feel like we're bein' watched by it,” Inuyasha grumbled, though he knew this to be the probable reason they'd been allowed in.

 

Kagome looked back at him from her spot on the river bank as she filled her canteens, “We probably are, Inuyasha, that's why we're here,” she narrowly avoided adding something akin to `duh' onto her comment as she turned back to the task at hand.

 

“Yeah, well just hurry up. We gotta cover more ground before it gets too late.”

 

It was funny, Kagome thought as she shook her head, she could almost always predict his stream of conversation now. Oh, sometimes he'd surprise her, but the base remained.

 

“Maybe we should try and find a way to say thank you to the being allowing us passage?” Sango quested as she glanced nervously around the glade they were in. She just knew the being was out there, same as everyone, but the knowledge didn't quite bother her as it seemed to bother Inuyasha. In fact, Inuyasha seemed to be the only one that was nervous.

 

“Fantastic idea, my dear. Perhaps an offering of some kind? Truly, I wonder what kind of being holds this territory. It is far lovelier than any other we've passed,” Miroku added with slight wonder to his voice.

 

“Oh, I know what it is, but he's powerful. We don't need to be here any longer than necessary, got it?” Inuyasha supplied uneasily.

 

Kagome finished her last canteen and stood, turning around, “Really? What is he?” she asked as she screwed the top onto the water canister and placed it in her trusty backpack with the others.

 

“A kitsune!” piped up a small voice. Everyone's head snapped to Shippo, who stood by Sango a few feet from Kagome, “Don' know what kind, though…” the little kit trailed off, trying to read better the youki from across the river.

 

“Yeah, so can we go now?” Inuyasha pressed, obviously having some respect for claimed territory. Of course, he didn't really want to voice the fact that this kitsune was noticeably stronger than himself as well. Though it scruffed him up a bit, facts would be facts and they had somewhere to be. He didn't want to waste time on something preventable.

 

Kagome broke the silence Inuyasha left to address Sango's idea of leaving a gift for the fox, “So…what do you guys think about leaving him a bit of pocky? If Shippo doesn't mind sharing, that is,” she looked pointedly at said kit as she made her suggestion.

 

Though he didn't like the thought of giving up their limited amount of candy, he knew better than to be selfish, “No, Kagome, I bet he'll like it.”

 

With a swift nod, Kagome walked a small distance away from the water and heaved the yellow monstrosity off of her back. How her backpack had withstood four years of this as well as it had, she would never know. Unhooking the clasps that she'd had to put on it sometime last year to replace the broken drawstring, she briefly dug in it before claiming the bright boxes victoriously, “Which should I leave? Chocolate, or strawberry?” she pondered aloud, not expecting an answer.

 

“Well…my favorite is the chocolate. He might like that one...” Shippo offered reluctantly.

 

Kagome gave Shippo a loving smile. Shippo's favorite was chocolate, so she'd leave the strawberry for their thank you. He was sharing willingly, after all.

 

 

 

 

As the woman voiced her indecision on what she would leave him, Youko still sat stunned that they were even considering a payment for their use of the river. Humans rarely did anything like that. As the group prepared to leave in the direction they'd arrived, he caught sight of the woman with the pocky hang back and prop the opened pink box on a boulder.

 

“Thank you,” she whispered, obviously knowing that he would be able to hear her.

 

She jogged away after that to catch up with her companions. Youko stood from his perch to appreciate her jog before stepping down to the forest floor to inspect the box. He strode surely over to the out-of-place item on the rock. She seemed to have left him the strawberry flavor of what they'd called pocky. His lips tweaked up with the realization that she'd kept her kit's favorite. He might have to contact the young one so that he could sample some of the chocolate as well; he might be a thief, but he wouldn't steal all of the boy's candy. Selecting one of the sticks from the box with his delicate clawed hand, he brought the aromatic treat to his nose to savor it.

 

He closed his eyes briefly in appreciation; it smelled fantastic. With a crunch, the stick was consumed immediately. Before they got too far from him, he closed the precious box and stowed it away before he leapt into the trees to continue following his newest enterprise.