InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Lifetime Loving You Part 2; The Path to Osaka ❯ Inuyasha's New Name ( Chapter 17 )

Disclaimer; Inu-yasha is not mine!

 

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Sorry guys, a lot has been going on. Mom had to get heart surgery, internship at a local paper, and just about a billion other things.

 

I think I'm going to cut a lot of things out of this part of the story mostly because I want to get things moving and for the most part it was all just filler.

 

So, some bigger major events are going to take place now to get the story where is should have been a long time ago.

 

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Chapter 17; Inu-yasha's New Name

 

(Inu-yasha's POV)

 

Her powers were getting better. Kitsumi had been able to pick up different scents with her nose more easily with each passing day. Though, it seemed to be that morning of that day that I would never forget, because of what every event it led to after that.

 

Kitsumi lifted her nose to the air pointing it westward. She giggled, “The air is starting to smell salty, and it's tickling my nose.” She rubbed her nose on her kimono sleeve to rid herself of the annoying yet strange sensation.

 

I pointed my nose in the western direction. “If there's salt in the wind coming from the west it might mean there's a storm coming in from the sea.”

 

Kagome's shadow moved in the under growth as she listened in on our conversation in the high trees. “Do you see storm clouds?”

 

I leaned in as I felt two tiny hands grip my leg to steady the body attached to them. “There are dark clouds ahead; we should be able to get through the mountain pass before they hit us.”

 

I picked up the squirt and jumped down the tree landing a foot away from Kagome's figure. Kitsumi scrambled up my arms and sat on my shoulders.

 

Kagome watched her daughter for a moment as Tai and his horse trotted up behind us. “How long do we have?”

 

“We have the day before the worst of it hits us. If we leave for the mountain pass now the better chance we have of getting out of this valley before anything else happens.”

 

Tai nodded, “Then let us continue.”

 

Tai bowed to Kagome and rode ahead leading the way as the villagers and fellow demons followed silently.

 

I eyed Tai suspiciously. “Since when did he take charge? I'm the one who know's his way to Osaka.” I watched him carefully for a moment before I twitched at the feel of Kitsumi playing with one of my ears.

 

She giggled and continued to play with the soft white platinum fur. Kagome hid a smile behind her hand to keep herself from laughing. I looked at her and glared in annoyance. “Feh, she really is your daughter.”

 

~~~~

 

(Kagome's POV)

 

I swallowed my laughter as Inu-yasha turned away and headed down the path to scout ahead, my daughter holding on to his forehead as he ran ahead.

 

I smiled a little as I watched them both move ahead, not noticing that Sango had stopped at my side. She stared at me for a moment before looking a head and then looking back with a half smile on her face. “Hum, it's been a long time since I've seen that look on your face.”

 

I blushed and looked at her. “What look?”

 

Sango smirked as Miroku placed his hand on my shoulder. “The look you give Inu-yasha when he's annoyed with you and you find it far too amusing to keep from smiling.”

 

I gasped and placed my hands over my face to cover the uncontrollable blush heating up my face.

 

**** “You think marks like these are burdens. They're only burdens if you let them become that to you.” ****

 

I gasped as Inu-yasha's word from the day in the hot spring echoed in my head.

 

**** “I've lived my whole life surrounded by death. I lost my father before I knew him and a mother when I was too young to know what kind of life I would have.” ****

 

I covered my ears and closed my eyes trying to block out the sound of his voice, but I couldn't…I couldn't…right?

 

**** “You came and gave me life again, a second chance to see what life could really be. Ever since then all you've done is show me what life is, its hopes its sorrows. So, how can you say these things, when I've watched you make life? How can you think your ugly, when all I can see is the beauty you can make inside of you?” ****

 

I opened my eyes feeling the warmth in my face fade. I placed my hand over my heart and felt it pound against my chest. It had been so long.

 

`No, this can't be happening.'

 

I finally realized my surroundings and found that the caravan had already passed me by. I gasped as I picked up my skirt and ran to catch up with them.

 

“Hey, wait for me!”

 

Miroku looked at Sango as their twins, Kara and Kohaku fought over a snake skin Shippo found. Miroku smirked, “She's beginning to remember things. Old promises and words she's locked away for too long.”

 

Sango clutched her husband's hand and rolled a single rosary bead between two fingers. Miroku looked down and placed his other hand over hers. “You promised.”

 

“I know…I just feel like this is something we're not going to be able to hide much longer. In fact, I don't feel like this Osaka will protect us at all.”

 

Sango looked to the west at the valley mountain pass. “It's this feeling I can't help. It's like…our every move…is being watched. I can't help feeling like he will find out.”

 

Miroku squeezed her hand and kissed it. “I will always protect you and our children. My curse ends with me.” He looked at his two children and took a long hard look at Kohaku as he teased his sister with the snake skin. “I won't let him take the one thing that means something to the both of us.”

 

~~~~

 

The pink sky of the sunset began to turn dark as we passed through the last part of the valley pass. The earthy pass led us up on one side of one of the mountains. The trees and shrubs that grew on the steeper side of the mountain below us hid the dark drop below.

 

Tai walked beside his horse as I rode horseback through the last part of the pass.

 

It was silent; no one spoke a word as we walked through the last part of the path. All were hoping to see the ocean shimmer at the end of the path that lead us out of the mountain valley pass that we had trudged through for the past month. We all wanted to see the ocean, and the new place we would call our home.

 

Suddenly, there was a loud clap of thunder over our heads, and Tai's horse instantly was spooked and threw me off its back. Tai calmed his horse down as Inu-yasha took hold of me and pulled me out of harm's way. “You alright?”

 

He held me bridal style in his arms and I felt the same blush from earlier begin to sneak up on me. Inu-yasha's face turned concerned and he looked me over as he placed me down. His hands brushed the dirt off of me. “You're not hurt are you?” he asked me in compliance with his pervious question I hadn't answered.

 

Inu-yasha's concerned and worried filled eyes were looking straight into mine. My heart was pounding and it seemed every part of me wanted nothing more than to kiss his lips at that moment to calm his worried nerves.

 

I remembered…I remembered how his body relaxed behind mine when his lips first touched mine. It was the night Kitsumi was born, the sounds of a newborn's cry with the warmth of Inu-yasha's body and kiss. It was my first kiss, my only kisses shared with another man.

 

Five years had passed, and I wondered if his kiss was different now, was it the same as it was in the bog, where I kissed him, and he kissed me back only to not feel me return his pressure.

 

What did it feel like now?

Another clap of thunder shot me out of my dreams and memories. I gasped and pressed my face to his chest, his body tensed and relaxed. He whispered softly in my ear, “You've faced demons ten times your size and you freak out over thunder and bugs.”

 

I felt my body relax. “I can't help it,” I whimpered.

 

Inu-yasha snorted and took off the fire rat vest, the last of his fire rat kimono, and placed it over my head as an icy cold drop of water hit me square on the back of my neck. It began to pour, as I felt Inu-yasha place the fire rat robe over my head. “Stay dry, okay? We'll be out of this valley passage soon.”

 

I held on to his arm for a second as I looked upward toward the sky as the storm clouds above us rumbled. I couldn't help, but feel like something just wasn't right.

 

“Kagome? What is it?”

 

I froze still. “This rain…there's something not right with it.”

 

Inu-yasha narrowed his brow and looked toward the sky.

~~~~

 

(Kitsumi's POV)

 

I watched Mom and Inu-yasha as they looked up at sky I turned to look at it too, and Kara and Kohaku copied and everyone turned their attention to the sky.

 

I turned my nose to the air in the west, and smelled a scent that was tainted and harsh. It wasn't something in nature.

 

It was then that the lightning flashed once more, and as I gasped, the light seemed to come from another direction for a split second. I squinted as a bluish white light blinded me from the right.

 

When the light cleared, I saw a small mirror in Tai's hand. I eyed it for a moment and then watched as he placed it back into his armor. “We should keep moving.”

 

I watched him as he pulled his horse and begin to set a quick pace.

 

I took one step and stopped as a few others passed by. I lifted my nose again as a slight breeze passed by. I smelled the strange scent again. I'm not being honest though, I had smelled that scent before, but when.

 

I looked to the mountain on the opposite side just as a bolt of lightning hit the top of it. Everyone gasped in fear and I continued to look at the mountain. The rain continued to increase its cold down pour, and the air was thick with something.

 

“Inu-yasha… something smells funny.”

 

He raised his nose to the air, but shook his head. “The rain must be making your nose act up, Squirt. Come on,” he said softly as he picked me up and placed me on his shoulders.

 

~~~~

 

(????)

 

A dark shadowed figure stood a top the opposite mountain watching the caravan pass by. The black fur of his cloak matting in the rain and wind.

 

“The earth is wet here from the season rains, Inu-yasha. It is hear I will separate you from the girl and take her.”

 

A hand appeared and transformed into a hand of long boney fingers and sharp claws. “One last strike and your last vision will be mere mud.”

 

~~~~

 

(Kagome's POV) The rain came down harder now, and the path under our feet seemed to soften into clay. People's feet were getting caught in the mud with ease, and the fear of the lightning flashing over our heads didn't help any at all.

 

I had helped one old lady out of the mud and turned to find that Inu-yasha and Kitsumi had made it far a head of me.

 

“Kitsumi,” I called out.

 

“Inu--” I began only to have my voice drowned out by a large clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning. I looked up and gasped. The lightning bolt wasn't white-blue like normal bolts. This one was neon purple, and didn't fade away. It screeched and snapped in the air. Everyone, gasped as it danced in the air.

 

Inu-yasha turned to look up at the sky and put Kitsumi down as I ran to his side. It hissed and then hit the side of the mountain, seeming to disintegrate a large group trees far above our heads into ashes.

 

Everyone gasped and I took hold of Inu-yasha's hand and my daughter's in the other. The trees were gone and all that could be heard was the harsh pounding of rain.

 

There was silence, and then a loud crack and in a matter of moments, the side of the mountain began to fall apart and cascade down the steep side of the mountain. Screams were resounding through the valley as everyone scattered. I was frozen as Kitsumi screamed, “Mommy!” and the last thing I knew before the watery earth hit us, was the image of Inu-yasha's body taking hold of both me and my daughter.

 

I felt his hand clasped in mine, and Kitsumi's entire body wrapped around my leg and my arm around her. My hand was the only thing that was telling me Inu-yasha was still there. I wasn't scared as long as Inu-yasha's hand was still there. My safety, my guardian, my protector, my whole world was still there.

 

And the next thing I knew the current ripped it away from me, and I felt the pain of two claws make cuts in my hand as it disappeared into the nothingness. I wanted to scream his name, I wanted to reach out for his hand again, feel all of the mud to find him. But, the current pulled me down and I felt rocks and wood hit my body, and the only thing I could think of to do at that moment was to shield my only child from the harm around her.

 

I had lost track of everything, I had accepted death…and then everything slowed and stopped. I struggled to feel for anything in the watery mud around me that would become my tomb and my daughter's.

 

Though, no motherly instinct would fail me at that moment, and I choose one direction where the mud didn't seems as earthy, and dug. I pushed and pulled Kitsumi, until I felt my body burst out of the watery mud I gasped for air as drops of earthy water fell to the back of my throat. I coughed and tugged Kitsumi out so she could get to the surface. She coughed as we pulled ourselves to where the mud seemed more stable. Kitsumi coughed hard as she threw up mud and small stones.

 

I plopped down on my side and looked at my daughter as she wiped the mud from her face and eyes. My chest hurt, everything hurt, but my eyes didn't mind the sight of my daughter's face. For a moment, just for that split moment, it was almost like I could see a young Inu-yasha's face with its worried eyes looking back at me.

 

Inu-yasha…

 

I sat up and screamed, “Inu-yasha!”

 

I forgot completely about the unstable mud and fell on my face. I shook the dirt from my eyes and crawled across the mud to find him as hands and faces appeared from the mud. I cleaned everyone's face as I passed, looking for amber eyes. Many of the demons began to sniff all of the mud to find people trapped within. Polaris was one of these and pulled Kara and Kohaku from the mud. Sango came out a second later. “Sango, where's Miroku?” I asked as I helped her clean her face.

 

Sango's eyes looked panicked for only a second until she screamed. A moment later a complete look of annoyance cast over her face, and she punched the mud before pulling a hand that was wandering her butt and pulling Miroku from the earth.

 

I looked around the area, cleaning faces and pulling other's from their earthy cocoons. None, not one person I saw had amber eyes. I looked around as people coughed and vomited. “Where is he? Where's Inu-yasha?”

 

Tai came to my side and I punched him, as he grabbed my fists. “No, he can't be gone. He's in the mud hear somewhere. I have to find him. I won't loose him. Inu-yasha!”

 

He always came back before, he always survived before. “My body's built different” he always told me. He was alive, wasn't he? Surly he wasn't succumbed to his doom by a mudslide. No, I wouldn't believe it. He was alive, any second now he would burst from the mud and call me a stupid girl for believing for a mere second he was dead. That he had left me…alone.

 

“No, Inu-yasha, no…you can't do this to me. You promised…you promised me.”

Tai hushed me and pulled me to his chest. His comfort wasn't the same though. He didn't understand, he didn't know.

 

I was ready to pry myself away from Tai's arms when Kitsumi's small body scampered across the mud. She tripped and crawled franticly to a far side of the mud where no one else was found. She put her nose to the runny earth.

 

I pulled away from Tai and ran to her side. “Kitsumi,” I whispered as I watched her focus and dedication hard at work.

 

She was whispering something every time she exhaled through her mouth. “Tree sap…Mommy's medicine…Tree sap…Mommy's medicine…”

 

Kitsumi picked at the earth and smelled every inch of it for hours it seemed at a time going through it all.

 

Soon, we were a good distance away from the rest of the group, and it was then after a long moment of silence that Kitsumi's nose stopped over one place. With one long hard sniff, she began to dig away the thick mud on the top. More mud fell into the whole and she struggled to push it away franticly.

 

I rushed to her side and began to dig with my hands pulling the mud away. Shippo joined a moment later, followed by Miroku and Sango, their two children until the circle around the hole got bigger. I dug my hands in deeper, and deeper, until I gasped at the feeling of something pricking my finger. My heart skipped a beat as I dug around, caring less about the fact my fingertips were cut and bleeding from beginning to dig frantically.

 

A clawed hand appeared and then an arm. I took hold of his arm and began to pull, Miroku and Sango tugged until Polaris and other's came and pulled us in order to yank Inu-yasha free of the mud tomb. His hand wasn't moving, it was cold, and my heart began racing with fear.

 

He was finally pulled from the tomb and placed on his back before me. Miroku pushed the crowd back as I opened Inu-yasha's kimono to listen for a heart beat since I couldn't find his pulse. His body was stiff and cold. I panicked and rushed to his side. I cleaned his face and blew air into his mouth. I began CPR, and pumped his chest counting. “Breathe, Inu-yasha,” I sobbed, “Don't you dare die on me now.”

 

He didn't move. He didn't say stupid girl. He didn't even open his eyes.

 

I breathed into his mouth again. “Please, Inu-yasha, open your eyes.”

 

It was then that I saw Kitsumi's eyes fill with tears as she touched his arm. “Inu-yasha…Inu-yasha, wake up…You have to wake up… You can't die. Who's gonna help me? You have to teach me, Inu-yasha! Who's gonna take me flying? Who's gonna teach me to fly?”

 

I stopped and whipped the mud from his face. “Please…please don't leave me here. You promised me…you promised me you'd never leave me.”

 

I broke down and gripped the sides of Inu-yasha's kimono and cried into his chest. “You can't die…You can't leave me here.”

 

Kitsumi sobbed and shook Inu-yasha. “Wake-up…wake-up, Inu-yasha. Stop making Mommy cry! Wake up, please.”

 

I sobbed into Inu-yasha's chest, and didn't notice a Tai tried to pick up Kitsumi. “Come on, Kitsumi.” he said.

 

“No!” she screamed, and she clawed at Tai's armor. “No, put me down. Inu-yasha, wake-up!”

 

Tai gripped her tiny waist. “Kitsumi, you need to let your mother be for a moment.”

 

“No, Inu-yasha's not dead…Inu-yasha…Wake-up, Inu-yasha!”

 

I cried as I listened to Kitsumi scream, and was ready to tell Tai to let her be, when I heard the words I would never forget. It was a word I had never heard Kitsumi say. A word I never heard Kitsumi call anyone. A word that meant the world to her…the world to me, and I'll never forget the moment she said it as she pried free from Tai's grasp.

 

“DADDY, WAKE-UP!!!”

 

It was all in slow motion, I remember it all, every second of it. That one word I told Inu-yasha that Kitsumi was never to call him, and she on her own at that moment had made the choice by herself. The hand with the white and gold claws lurched forward and glowed as they penetrated deep into Inu-yasha's left breast. There was a heartbeat and Inu-yasha's aura rippled around us as the wind surrounded us all, and the energy around Inu-yasha rippled again at the sound of his heartbeat.

 

In that moment as light and wind surrounded all of us, Inu-yasha's eyes shot open in the light engulfing his body and he roared as his body came back to life and the white light faded. Inu-yasha coughed and turned to his side and coughed up all the mud in his lungs, vomiting the muck in his stomach. He gasped for air and put his hand to his left breast where five tiny white marks glowed before fading away. Inu-yasha's chest was unharmed, and untouched. He sat back on his knees and looked at the area where his heart was beating, which, he knew all too well at that moment, it shouldn't have been.

 

His hand was joined by another, mine and I looked at him and his eyes looked to mine for answers. “Did…did I die?”

 

I couldn't form words I just cried in joy and threw myself into his body, his now warm living body. His hands touched my back. “You're alive!”

 

Kitsumi wriggled her way between us and curled up into Inu-yasha's lap. Her voice a whisper as she fell asleep after losing so much of her energy. Her last words a mere whimper of joy, “I wish you were my daddy.”

 

Inu-yasha's eyes widened and his ears perked forward and he turned to me. “She did it…she did it, again, the same thing that saved us both the last time when the fire burned the village.”

 

His hands took hold of my shoulders, “She did it, Kagome…” he whispered, “she saved me…I heard her call me and I came back to her through the light. But she didn't call the name I thought she would…she called me…”

 

His eyes met mine and our eyes locked, and before Inu-yasha could say anything, I passed out in Inu-yasha's arms.

 

~~~~

 

(Kitsumi's POV)

 

I sat up straight when I woke up that morning and gasped. I looked around to find myself in the old skin patched tent and quickly grabbed my pink kimono and hakama. I looked to my side to find mother sound asleep and another side of the tent disturbed by another body that had been sleeping there.

 

I got dressed and tied the sash Kiade had given me on the last day I saw her alive. I crawled out into the forest that had not succumbed to the mudslide. Strange though that many of the elderly folk were talking about how they thought many were injured in the event, only to discover that everyone's wounds had healed over night.

 

I ignored there conversations and the strange looks I was getting as I sniffed out Inu-yasha. I found him in a tree looking through the last part of the mountain passage. He was gnawing away at a small piece of dried meat as he watched to see if the sun behind him would show him any water.

 

There were still trees on the horizon.

 

He sighed as I jumped up into the tree and crawled up on the back of his shoulder. “What cha doing?”

 

He groaned, “Trying to figure out how much farther we have to go to get to Osaka.” Inu-yasha hung his head and sighed as he stood up. I grumbled as I tried to climb up on his shoulders and take hold of his hair for balance.

 

“Take me flying, Inu-yasha? Like we did in the village?” I asked softly.

 

Inu-yasha looked up at me over his shoulder and smiled. “Actually, I have a better idea.”

 

~~~~

 

“You're going to teach me?” I whined.

 

“I can't carry you forever, Squirt. You're getting bigger by the day.”

 

I kicked the dirt at my feet. “I'm not so sure. What will mom say?”

 

Inu-yasha snorted, “The same things she always says after I bring you back from a flight around the village.”

 

I looked at Inu-yasha for a moment and then made a funny face to show I was thinking hard, biting my tongue and looking up into the sky with my head titled to one side. “Okay!”

 

Inu-yasha smiled as he turned his attention westward again for a moment. “Any idea how fast you can run yet?”

 

I scratched my nose with my claw for a moment, “No.”

 

“Then, I'll race ya!” And with that he took off into the distance and I caught my breath and ran after him. “Hey, wait up!”

 

Of course Inu-yasha wasn't going as fast as he normally did. He knew my legs were still too small to keep up. Yet, the strange thing was, I found myself gaining on him. In fact, I found myself at his heels before I even knew it.

 

“Put your arms back and lean into it, you'll pick up speed.”

 

I did as he told me and continued to breath, and before I knew it, everything felt like the world was flying past me. I felt the way I did when I was with Inu-yasha, when we did these things together. We were as one. We were free.

 

I felt the joy fill my entire body and I crouched down low as I leaped through the air and into the trees laughing the whole way above Inu-yasha as he traveled on the ground watching me from above.

 

I leaned in further as I laughed and smiled at the feeling of the wind surrounding me and taking hold of me. I was one with it, I was part of it.

 

Inu-yasha jumped into the trees surprising me and then taking the lead. We leapt through the trees, feeling the wind take us. We were bursting in and out of the tops of the trees laughing as we dodged each other. He ran across the tops of the trees with a simple agility. He had a grace I lacked it seemed, a grace I wanted to have one day.

 

It was then that we entered a shadow between the two mountains, and we passed by Tai who had stopped at a small pond to wash his face. Our passing startled his horse and when he realized it was us he called out to Inu-yasha, but none of us could hear him over our laughter.

 

He rode his horse back to camp in a panic, calling my mother's name. “Kagome, come quickly, I rode a head before dawn and found a cliff on the other side of this mountain pass. Inu-yasha and Kitsumi are heading straight for it.”

 

Mother ran out of our tent and up to the horse Polaris at her side. “What?”

 

“Hurry, we have to get to them.”

 

He held out his hand and helped my mother mount his horse as they rode to the cliff, all other dog demons and their children in tow.

 

Inu-yasha and I continued our play, but I still wasn't flying. I knew what it was like, completely freeing yourself from everything and just letting the wind be your guide. I was ready.

 

I had gotten ahead of Inu-yasha as was ignoring what was a head of me. The forest was coming to an end and the mountain pass was clearing. I wanted to fly.

 

I picked up speed, and hardly heard Inu-yasha's voice as he called out to me. I was going to do it. I was going to do this on my own.

 

I took one last step on the final tree branch and pushed as hard as I could, putting all my energy into that one step and lifting myself into the air.

 

I closed my eyes and let everything go. The wind wrapped around me, and I kept one leg bent like Inu-yasha did.

 

I opened my eyes and gasped as I discovered I was far above the ground, way too far from the ground. I panicked and screamed until I felt Inu-yasha come to my side. “Keep your balance,” he yelled, “and look forward toward the horizon.”

 

Inu-yasha stayed low as we flew together. I stayed calm and let the wind flow around me. It was like flying with Inu-yasha, heck I was flying with him. Only I was doing it on my own. I wasn't alone in this world. I had everything in the world as long as I have Inu-yasha at my side.

 

I didn't need anything more as long as Inu-yasha was at my side. I only wished my mom could see that, too. She was happier when he was near. Mom was stronger when he was at her side, and he was the same. I only wished they saw things the way I did. If Sesshoumaru didn't want to be my father, then who was to say Inu-yasha couldn't? He was the only other person I knew for as long as I could remember. The only other person at my mother's side.

 

It was then that my mother's voice cut through my thoughts and I turned my head to see her out of the corner of my eye, but something blinded me when I saw her angry face.

 

Sunlight hit me square in the eye and a glare from ahead made me loose my concentration. I fell onto Inu-yasha's back and rubbed my eyes.

 

When I opened them I could hardly believe my eyes. “Inu-yasha, look!”

 

The sun's light was coming over the mountains and created a golden shimmer over a large body of water that kept growing and shimmering in the morning light. It moved over the water until it hit the shore, and there along the ocean cliffs was a white palace. Its roof made of faded tan clay tile, a wall of white limestone, and walls of wood and white plaster. Cherry trees were in bloom around it and the pink petals gave way to the wind around the palace.

 

My eyes widened, “It's…it's…”

 

“Osaka,” Inu-yasha said in awe.

 

My mother took a step toward the edge of the cliff and shed a tear. “We made it,” she whispered.

 

Sango and Miroku hugged their children as they looked out over the edge. Miroku picked up his son and smiled as Kara took hold of her mother's hand.

 

“We're home,” Miroku said with a smile as Kohaku hugged his neck.

 

He was right. We we're home.

 

…but the journey had only begun.

 

~~~~

 

3 Chapter's left. See you soon!