InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Intertwined ❯ Start of a new journey ( Chapter 6 )

 

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

 

 

 

Thanks, reviewers!!

 

Sam Sama Death: I thank you profusely for your continued reviewing! Don't worry; the citrus will make its way into the story, but some things need to happen first. The sexual tension can't be solved too early, right? *evil smile* The story tends to go its own way when I sit to write it, so I'm only very roughly guestimating when I say you'll see that juicy tang in five or six more chapters; though it could be more or less. *shrug*

DYquem: I thank you for your continued reviewing, as well. I'm thrilled that you are enjoying it and aren't getting too bored with the setup. Youko's greedy, yeah, but he is a thief, yes? ^_~ The greediness is supposed to be there for now, but it will dissipate eventually.

HeartStar: Thanks! ^_^ Here ya go!

Vixen of the Flame: Wow, glad you're liking it.

 

A/N: As usual, I had to wait for my Muse to cooperate with this chapter. I felt like I had to practically wring out every sentence… This is my first fanfiction, so I can only hope my setups will improve with subsequent ones. Don't worry, though; things will definitely pick up in the next few chapters. Now I promised e-muffins, so I made a whole bunch of chocolate chip muffins just for you readers. =^_^= Careful, they're hot and gooey. Don't get it all over yourself unless you have someone handy to lick it off. ^_~

 

The Intertwined

 

 

 

Chapter 6

 

 

 

 

Youko shifted on his side as he lay on the strange futon Kagome had loaned him as he mulled the facts given to him, albeit reluctantly in Inuyasha's case, by the sleeping humans. Looking up once again from his spot inside the hut, he saw Inuyasha still glowering at him. He knew perfectly well that the reason for Inuyasha's animosity was the fact that he'd greatly enjoyed the attention his fuzzy ears had received, even if he was trying so hard to deny it. Really, he hadn't been out of line at all.

 

“She's asleep now, you don't have to stay in here just to make her happy,” Inuyasha grumbled into the quiet, just low enough to keep from waking said “her”.

 

Angling a look at the kind miko that had refused to take his declination, he recalled how she'd stated that he'd had to sleep in the trees during travel all last month instead of around the fire. It was strange to him, really. The fact that the woman felt remorse for something she'd had absolutely no control over…

 

He looked back up to his near double, “I quite enjoy the view in here, thank you,” he smiled languidly, “You worry so much…I won't molest tonight, I've had my fill,” he winked, sensual smile still in place.

 

Inuyasha growled as he heard this, “You better not touch `em again, you hear me? `Cause let's get one thing straight, fox; I don't take to the male population,” he said over his growl.

 

Youko's eyebrows lifted in mock surprise, “You don't say, now,” rising to a seated position, he leaned his back on the wall of the hut, “So, you can't take a little ear-tweak regardless of sex? I gather you haven't let many touch them, ne?” he continued, briefly tweaking his own ear before he leaned his head back on the wall with his eyes still on Inuyasha. His question was answered when Inuyasha “feh-ed”, and crossed his heavily clothed arms. Youko chuckled at the young dog's antics, “You've really no idea what it is you're missing…” he left it at that then rolled his head to the side to once more study the women now that he could more closely.

 

“Keh. I do now, no thanks to you,” Inuyasha grumbled, barely audible.

 

Hearing this, Youko's lips parted in a grin wide enough to flash a bit of fang as he looked over the slayer's shaded eyelids, `To be resilient enough to withstand such marking of her skin.' His sight moved over to Kagome's sleeping form, tracing her blue-black hair when Inuyasha interrupted again, drawing his attention.

 

“You asked a lot about Naraku, Fox,” Inuyasha began, looking back to Youko, “You think he had something to do with that manipulator?”

 

He'd been waiting for Inuyasha to come to that deduction, “I think it's highly probable, hai,” he answered soberly, “If this is the case, it might be prudent to find a sorcerer for that barrier. As much as your group seems to be integrated in this fight, I would fully expect him to exploit the manipulator's uses against you to win it.”

 

Nodding gravely, Inuyasha thought on this a moment, “How would a sorcery brand react to miko powers?”

 

Youko knitted his brows, “Truthfully, I have no idea,” he said, looking at Kagome contemplatively, “That would be something to ask a sorcerer, should we find a suitable one.”

 

Inuyasha recognized that Youko seemed to include himself, but he figured it was understandable; he did have one of the brands on himself somewhere after all… `Wait a minute…' Frowning, Inuyasha suddenly wondered at the validity of said brand, “Oi, how do we know for sure you've even got one? You never showed us any brand,” he said with accusation.

 

Youko's features took a nose dive into a purely innocent look, “Oh, so you wanted to see it? And here I thought you didn't like males that way…” he said, pretending to inspect his claws. They needed to be cleaned again…

 

“Don't flatter yourself. For all we know, you could be workin' with someone to trick us out of the jewel,” he accused.

 

Youko rolled his eyes, “Oh, for the love of…” sitting up and spinning in place, he began undoing his sash to expose his hips. Inuyasha's eyes went wide with shock as the kitsune pushed aside the tunic he wore, but recovered nicely when he saw the scared over welts forming the characters for sunshine sitting on the fox's skin right next to the base of his tail. It was a clean branding, and neatly sat just above his left cheek.

 

Folding his arms with a blush, Inuyasha looked away, “Alright, so ya ain't lying. Pull `em up,” he conceded quickly. Youko grinned amusedly; loosely tying the sash just enough to hold up the pants of his outfit, then resettled into his position against the wall, forearms resting on his propped up knees.

 

“So why didn't you show yourself after you let out your scent six days ago?” Inuyasha quested, hoping to get his own answers from him. He now knew about their recent past, but they knew nothing of him aside from the fact that he was a kitsune thief that was apparently very well known in some communities.

 

Keeping his head reclined on the wall, Youko replied lazily, “I am a curious being, Inuyasha. I like to watch,” he said through an impish half-smile, “Of course, you and the kit were the only ones that knew of my continued presence after leaving the perimeters of my territories on the way here, but it was fun to watch how your group handled it.”

 

“That why your scent was all over my head? `Cause you like to watch?” Inuyasha countered neatly.

 

Youko's brow went up, “Nice catch, Inuyasha,” he praised, sitting up and away from the wall, “If you really must know, I had wanted to…compare, as it were. I hardly see many demons with the feature; I was intrigued,” he reiterated with a shrug, obviously leaving out his ulterior motives of exterminating the poor boy's inexperience with his groping.

 

“And?” Inuyasha sounded impatient, now looking directly back to the smirking thief.

 

Doing a very good job of keeping the deviously victorious look from his eyes, Youko sighed loudly and moved to stand. Watching closely to see what Inuyasha would do about it, he strolled over to his spot around the women. Though Inuyasha tensed considerably, he remained where he was with a wary look to his eyes. Coming to a stop in front of him, Youko slowly descended to his haunches, “See for yourself if you wish to,” he offered in a deceptively neutral tone.

 

Inuyasha glanced up at the larger ears on Youko and snorted, “Sure, I thought you were bad before, I'd hate to be around you after someone's been fondling your ears. You're as bad as the monk,” he grumbled, ignoring the pull to do what the fox had suggested.

 

Chuckling at his thought patterns, Youko looked toward Miroku, “He does quite enjoy the female form. Really, can you blame him?” he tapped his nose, “If it weren't for the ability to smell it, I would almost believe he were experienced in that field,” he said as he stood and started on his way back to his pallet to settle in, “We will talk more of the brand when the humans wake.”

 

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“So, we need to find a sorcerer or sorceress to do this for us,” Kagome clarified the next morning, turning to Youko, “Do they all know how to put up this barrier, or do we need to find one that does?”

 

Running claws through his long hair, he answered her straightforwardly, “It is not a terribly well known incantation, but there are some who would still know of it. In answer to your question; Hai, we will have to search for one. Though I do have an idea of where to start,” he said, dropping his hair over his shoulder to feel its silky texture on his arms. Leaning up from the wall he'd been reclining against, he crossed his long legs, “The sorceress I knew is probably no longer around, but there are rumors of an apprentice of hers in the northern mountains. We might start there.”

 

“Oh, hell,” Inuyasha cursed into the room, “We go up there, we'll have to deal with that smelly wolf,” it was bad enough that he'd have to keep his eye out for the whereabouts of Youko's paws, but now he'd have to deal with the wolf too, `Could this get any better?'

 

Youko looked up to Inuyasha, who still stood near the entrance to the hut, “Wolf? You have previous dealings in the north with the wolves?” he turned back to the women seated around the hut along with Miroku, taking note of Kagome blushing adorably once again, “Well, that will certainly make things interesting. On that note, I'm ready to go when you are,” he leaned back, stretching his legs out as if waiting.

 

Kagome shifted nervously on her knees where she sat near Shippo, “Er, well…uhm…I need to go somewhere first,” she lamely spoke up, “You know, for supplies?” she looked to Inuyasha, dearly hoping Youko wouldn't catch on and start prodding about her home again. Of course, he would probably figure it out anyway; that fox was a smart cookie, `A very warm, gooey cookie fresh out of the oven, to hot to touch…' Kagome snapped her eyes away from said fox when she realized she'd been staring during that little detour. Kami, when did she turn into such a hentai? Was it that late in the month already?

 

Catching onto her train of thought by her actions, Inuyasha refused to acknowledge what her scent was currently telling him as she blatantly stared at the perverted newcomer, “Come on, I'll take you,” he told the blushing girl as he advanced on her and gently pulled her up by the upper arm. He had to give her credit; she seemed to be holding in that full tomato blush of hers well, “You guys stay here, we'll only be a couple hours,” he angled directly to the one being in the room that he did not want following them. He wouldn't know it if he did either, considering the guy could mask his presence so thoroughly. Youko only shrugged and crossed his fingers behind his head, leaning against the wall as the two left the hut.

 

They walked briskly with Inuyasha still holding her lightly by the arm, and were halfway to the well when he finally dropped his hold on her arm, “Can't believe you almost let the well slip to that guy. We don't know if we can trust him yet,” he scolded her.

 

With her mostly empty pack on her back, Kagome took her eyes off the trail to aim them at Inuyasha, “I think we can trust him, Inuyasha. He did save our village's ailment, after all. He didn't have to, you know,” she looked back to the trail, “Not to mention he couldn't go through even if he wanted to. We've tested that already, remember?”

 

Inuyasha winced; yeah, he remembered. They had tested several different methods to cross some time ago with Shippo. They knew he couldn't go through with just the jewel thanks to the fight with Rouyokon some four years ago when this all started, so they tried it with Kagome holding on to the kit as she jumped in with all of their combined shards; no go. They tried Shippo with Inuyasha too, but came up with the same results. Even Sango joined in the attempt, but nothing changed. For this reason, Shippo hadn't stopped whining about the failed attempts for a while after that. Of course since then, the kit had begun whining less and less thanks to his maturation, `Thank the Gods for small favors.'

 

“Yeah, well. We should still stay on the safe side anyway; we hardly know him,” Inuyasha excused lamely when they reached the clearing with the well nestled in the center of it. He paused before they went over, “We're only getting what we need over there, remember?”

 

Dropping her shoulders and sighing in exasperation, Kagome grabbed his hand and jumped in as an answer. On the other side as they stood in the near dark of the covered well, she gave her quick reply with a sly look as she climbed the ladder, “We're out of ramen; so we're going to have to go to the store,” A rustling of firerat sounded from the bottom of the well, signaling his exit and Kagome met him at the top of the ladder.

 

“Fine,” he agreed a little too quickly. Kagome walked ahead of him up the stairs and out of the well house with a triumphant smirk on her face, but she effectively wiped it off before Inuyasha could get a glimpse of it. `Hook, line, and sinker…' she thought as they made their way under shade of the God Tree on the way to her house.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Before long, Kagome had finished changing her clothes and trotted down the stairs in a tan sundress with a simple white half shirt left open at the collar, “Ready! Let's get going before mom gets back; I'd hate to just say hi and run,” she said, grabbing her small purse and running to the door to put her sandals on. They walked out into the sun and Kagome spun on her toes and presented Inuyasha with his usual uncomfortable hat. He almost brushed it off again, but one look at the blue doe-sized eyes she gave him made him cave as usual.

 

“Feh, can't believe you still make me wear the thing; I see weirder things on some people out there than my ears,” he said pulling the hat gently over his ears.

 

“Relax; you said we wouldn't be long. We only need to get some more ramen, jerky, pocky, a bigger pan, medical supplies, and a new leather thong for the necklace,” she ticked each item on her fingers as she named them, “The old strap won't take much more, and the last thing we need is for it to snap easily…again.”

 

Not that the thong broke often; only three times in four years. Not bad, considering. The last time, it had been ripped by a burly humanoid demon that came sniffing around sometime right after the new moon. He had tried to drag her off by her hair like a caveman as she was collecting some herbs for Kaede in the forest. Thankfully, he hadn't counted on her knowledge of a man's weaknesses that she took full advantage of when she was mad. She'd been fuming, and demon or human; they were still in the same place. Sure it was uncouth and barbaric, but it got the job done, right? It had been his fault anyway for not listening to her demands to be released. Inuyasha had only found out about the incident from the smell of him on her hair when she had returned. Needless to say, he went with her when she collected herbs after that. Paranoid, territorial males…

 

Kagome rolled her eyes with that thought, but refrained from chuckling at the thought of demons periodically sneaking around to be the last to pee on a certain tree in the woods. She turned to look at her companion; his concern was still sweet, territorial or not. Returning her eyes ahead of her to pay attention to where they were going, she saw they had another block or so to reach the market she always went to for her supplies. They had all of the medical supplies she needed, plus the survival foods such as jerky and ramen in bulk. The one thing they didn't have was pocky, so they would have to go to a candy store for that.

 

Grabbing Inuyasha's clawed hand without thinking, she hauled him into the place and went straight for the first item on their list. The ramen. As they neared the desired isle, thankfully Inuyasha refrained from drooling as he was met with three full shelves of different types of the instant noodles.

 

After gathering the items they would need, she paid the man at the front counter, who now knew Kagome by name, before exiting to go in the direction of the candy shop. Aside from choosing nearly every possible variety of ramen the last store had, Inuyasha had remained fairly quiet for the duration. He stood not two steps from her as she gathered some five boxes of strawberry Pocky, and another seven of the Chocolate.

 

“Why you gotta get so much of that stuff? Shippo's bad enough already without all that,” Inuyasha broke the stillness of the quiet store as he pointed to the twelve boxes stacked in Kagome's hands.

 

Kagome couldn't help but blush as she thought of their new kitsune friend and her promise to get extra candy for him, “Well…I did promise Youko that I'd get him some of the chocolate to try,” she bit her lip briefly, “And he did say he liked the strawberry, too…” she put in lamely, continuing to mumble as she escaped to the counter.

 

Inuyasha sighed and hung his head, `It's his ears…gotta be those ears that she's attracted to…' he told himself. He did not miss that nervous little flush of hers when she spoke of him. Lifting his head and returning to her side, Inuyasha followed her outside into the noon sun and back into the direction of the shrine, `Damn kitsune charm…' he slanted her a look. He couldn't really blame her, he guessed; none of them had any real relations with one another, so of course she would be shy and curious around appealing males. And the fox did look a might like he did…

 

“Okay, Inuyasha. I'll be ready to go once I get my clothes put together and our supplies organized. I have to refill my first aid kit and pack a few lunches for everyone. Think you can be patient a bit longer? ” Kagome asked, looking over at Inuyasha when they were only a block or so away from the shrine steps. She chuckled when she predictably got his “feh” in way of the affirmative. They had nearly reached the arch's column over the shrine's steps when Kagome's inattention to the sidewalk caused her to catch the toe of her sandal on a broken flat of concrete, gracelessly tumbling to nearly crush her paper bag full of supplies. Inuyasha stopped her from eating concrete, but the bag crashed down, most spectacularly spreading her purchases all over the ground and a portion of the street.

 

`Clumsy. I knew that was there, too…I'm such a klutz,' Looking up at Inuyasha, she half expected to get his easy degradation of her klutzy move, instead she saw an odd mixture of delight and concern shining on his face. The delight slightly confused her, but the concern was well received as she nervously stumbled out an apology, acutely aware of his solid warmth as he held her.

 

“Here, Miss. You dropped this. Are you alright?” A smooth voice asked, breaking the small trance they'd been in. The heads of both turned toward the new voice and Kagome was unceremoniously let go of to help herself to stand while shooting Inuyasha a displeased eye. Honestly; the man couldn't stand a little display of affection if someone else were around. Returning her azure eyes to the concerned citizen that asked of her wellbeing, she was shocked to see very unusual long crimson hair blowing in the wind.

 

Choking back a gasp, she looked to the pink box of pocky he held up to her in his tapered fingers, “Thank you. I-I'm sorry, I just wasn't paying attention to where my feet were,” she apologized for lack of anything better to say, not noticing the peculiar shifting of colors in his eyes. She took the box from his hand and looked to Inuyasha; she could swear she could hear him growling…

 

“Here…I'll help you pick up the other items that fell,” he kindly offered as he retrieved the beat up, but still usable, paper bag from the ground.

 

Kagome shoved her windblown hair from her eyes, “Oh, that's okay. You really don't have to…” she protested, the protest seemingly falling on deaf ears as he began collecting more pocky from the ground.

 

By the time she relented that he wouldn't listen, she began to reach for a clutter of ramen from the gutter, noticing from the corner of her eye that Inuyasha had yet to take his eyes off of their kind helper, `Oh, Inuyasha…please don't make a scene…'

 

Picking up the last box of band-aids, Kagome tossed it into the full bag that the red-head now held, “Thank you so much, Mr…uh…” she stammered timidly.

 

“My apologies,” he politely excused himself, shifting her grocery bag and putting out a well manicured hand for a shake. She took it, and noticed with curiosity that his eyes seemed to swim between two different colors, “I am Shuichi Minamino, pleasure to meet you,” he introduced himself smoothly, aiming those unusual eyes directly into hers.

 

Kagome cocked her head to the side, “Er…I'm Kagome…we haven't met before, have we?” she sounded utterly confused.

 

`Isn't she adorable?' Youko virtually purred excitedly inside Shuichi's mind, `Kami, it's good to see her again.'

 

`She doesn't look much different from the girl in your memories, Youko,' Kurama answered his more frisky half, still staring into her eyes, `Though she does feel quite different; as if something's missing…' he wordlessly evaluated the girl before the skin on her face began changing color to a darling pink as he still held her hand, a chuckle resounding in his head at the occurrence.

 

Focusing his eye to the present, he smiled sheepishly, “I'm sorry, my mind began to wander; you have such lovely eyes. No Miss Kagome, I don't believe we have met. Though I do feel as though I know you somehow,” he said, dropping her hand and gently offering her bag back to her. Oh yeah, he knew how dangerous it was to say that in front of the obviously younger Inuyasha standing quite angrily to the side, but it was always fun to perturb him. Whether Inuyasha was aware of the teasing or not…and this younger version seemed to be more excitable than the one he now knew.

 

`Did you notice how much pocky we picked up? I think she just met me back there, that's why she feels different; it hasn't happened yet,' Youko suddenly chuckled deeply, `She's going to regret getting all of that pocky, though…sweet thing brought us so much candy, we had trouble getting Shippo to sleep for weeks,' Kurama inwardly winced at that; that demon was bad enough as a six-hundred some year old kitsune. He'd hate to see him as a sugar-hyped kit…

 

Kurama hesitantly dropped her hand and noted with amusement how Inuyasha immediately claimed the same hand and practically glued her to his side to leave, Kagome stuttering out another thank you with a wave goodbye as she was hauled off. Another chuckle, `Do you think he's feeling threatened? You know we have to bring this up to him later, right?' Kurama grinned at the thought as he stood in place watching the woman and half-demon take the shrine steps two at a time. As they disappeared over the top of the steps, he thought of how his life had drastically changed because of those two.

 

He'd met the Red Forest kitsune called Shippo about six months or so after his sentence to the Reikai had ended. Very quickly after meeting Shippo, he found himself in the middle of a family circle he'd never guessed he would have been a part of, yet now was thanks to Youko's past. He hadn't known any of the demons he was now tied to aside from their vast reputations in the Makai, and he shortly learned after meeting them that the entire pack in which he was now deeply integrated was short by the two female members that had started it all, and had been for nearly six hundred years.

 

He just watched one of them walk away.

 

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“Somethin' wasn't right about that guy, Kagome. You need to quit bein' so trusting to people,” Inuyasha warned as they reached the top of the stairs.

 

Kagome turned to him, her hair blowing in the windy day and tickling her cheeks, “How so? I didn't sense anything tainted about him; in fact, he felt kinda familiar,” she airily added her opinion on the matter. She knew she tended to be too trusting most times, but Inuyasha definitely evened it out by being too suspicious all of the time.

 

“Yeah, that's what felt so wrong about him. I didn't like the way he smelled, either,” Inuyasha grumbled under his breath; that man had the distinct smell of roses to him, bringing to mind one randy Silver kitsune. Plus that thing with his eyes…

 

Once the pair made it to her front door, Kagome slid it open then raced upstairs to her room with an `I'll be ready in a sec' left behind for Inuyasha's ears. When she made it to her bedroom, she threw the poor beat up grocery bag on her bed, not noticing it emptying after it toppled over as she went to her closet and began dragging out her warmer apparel. She buried herself in the task, tossing out random old-style hakamas and tunics that she'd collected over time, then turtleneck sweaters of varying colors. Once the items she wanted had been found, she turned to find that she'd practically carpeted her room in the clothes she'd chosen.

 

`Oops…'

 

Shrugging it off, she began to fold the few outfits that she'd ultimately chosen to take with her through the winter months on the other side of the well. When she got to the last one, she had to collect the hakama for it from atop the groceries on her bed. After pulling it up, she caught sight of something underneath it that she knew didn't belong there.

 

A rose.

 

A small crease flashed between her brows as she reached out and picked it up, mechanically bringing it to her nose for a sniff, `Where on earth…' she mused about the blossom as she took in its scent. The only other people to come near that bag other than her had been the checker, and the man who helped her pick it up off the sidewalk. Unless it had already been on her bed…That's it…her mother or brother must have left it for her.

 

“What's takin' so long, woman?” Kagome's nose left the fragrant flower and whipped around when she heard Inuyasha's yell coming from the stairs. She hastily put the rose on her desk and finished folding her clothing, placing them in her bag once she was done packing the supplies from her bed. She closed the flap of her backpack and the clasps refused to meet, so she leaned on top of it as if it were a suitcase, and stretched the poor material until she got the fasteners together with a click. This is what her hanyou companion walked in on, drawing her attention to his usual impatience, though he did seem to be amused at her predicament as well.

 

“Be patient, Inuyasha. I'm done now so we can go, okay?” she said with a flick of her hair to keep the strap of her bag from pulling it as she secured it on her shoulder. Inuyasha seemed to be satisfied that she was hurrying, so he said nothing more as he began to lead the way back down the hallway.

 

Flitting her eyes briefly toward the rose that now adorned her desk, she figured that she could think on it later as she followed her hanyou to the kitchen to retrieve their lunches, then out of her home toward the well house. As they neared the shack and Inuyasha took the backpack from her, she realized with a start that she was on her way to get something that was slightly more permanent and probably way more painful than a tattoo. And while she knew her mother wouldn't particularly approve, she hoped that she would understand its purpose, therefore not grounding her into next year for intentionally scarring herself with a brand.

 

`I'm going to be in so much trouble,' Kagome whimpered as she watched Inuyasha jump in. Shaking her head, she took a resolved breath and followed him from the future.