InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bottled Genius ❯ Dog's Body ( Chapter 13 )

Author's Notes: Oh no! I checked the dictionary that sits on my desk and it says that Realise is actually spelt as Realize! But it also spells Colour with a U so it's not an American dictionary, seeing as how it was printed in Wrotham (England).

I'm thinking perhaps the government changed the spellings of a few words and forgot to tell us… or I'm thinking that I'm just very confused here…

Bottled Genius

Chapter 13

Dog's Body

The smell of salty sea air was the first thing that struck Inuyasha when he began to wake up. He could hear the gentle regular sigh of waves lapping against a beach, and when he opened his eyes he found himself lying on his side on the sand, staring out at the crystal clear waters a few short feet away. The white sand around him was the only other thing that he saw.

Until Kagome's leg stepped into view, blocking his vision of the sea. He knew it was Kagome's leg - he recognised the shape of her ankle… slim and dainty, but sturdy looking. And sure enough, when she crouched down he found himself looking into Kagome's face.

Though she looked more like Kikyo than ever… her eyes were slightly dull and her lips weren't smiling. In fact he was almost certain that the face belonged to Kikyo, but the hair and body belonged to Kagome.

Of course, it could only be Naraku.

"So you thought flying away across the ocean would lose me?" he said in Kagome's voice. "I think I overestimated your intelligence, Inuyasha. You should know that I've been watching you and this family for every second for every day since I was born. I saw what you planned and I followed you here. Did you really think you could escape your punishment?"

"Oh naff off…" Inuyasha slurred dully. If he could move, he would have slugged the abomination around the head - regardless of the fact it would feel like he was hitting Kagome. "Where am I?"

"You're in a bad position to make demands like that." Naraku said haughtily. "But I was going to tell you anyway. We're about half a mile away from the little holiday home. And about a mile away from any other building. So… you can scream and scream but no one will hear you here."

Inuyasha lifted his head a little to look around. All he saw was an endless beach, backed up by a tropical looking forest and fronted by an endless sea. Wonderful…

"One question…" Inuyasha turned his head back to look at Naraku. "How the hell did you knock me out?"

He laughed. "Well, thanks to you, I now have the knowledge of a thousand Youkai and one human inside my brain." He tapped the side of Kagome's head with a feminine finger. "And even though the human was worth shit in the wisdom department, there were several rather useful pots of knowledge in the mass. Some even knew what Wishbringers were. Some Youkai were so old that they remembered a time when myths and rumours of your kind were flying around like bees - when everyone wanted to get their grubby hands on a 'Genie'. And some, not very many though, knew certain weaknesses of the Wishbringers' corporeal form."

Inuyasha sighed heavily and willed his eyes shut with a groan. "Dammit…"

"So I know that whilst technically you can't kill a Wishbringer with a knife or a gun or rusty metal spikes, you can at least render them useless if you strike their core." Naraku reached out and tickled a hand down Inuyasha's chest to the point below where his ribs joined - also the point where a rather large spike protruded through his body. "The solar plexus is a Wishbringers Achilles heal. Pierce it and they're down for the count… until I remove the spike that is."

Wow… even Inuyasha hadn't known all that crap. He'd been filled in about a lot of the limitations and weaknesses of a Wishbringer by the one who made him… except the guy seemed to have mentioned the thing about the solar plexus. Perhaps Inuyasha would have been more careful about that if he'd known. "You're not going to remove the spike are you?" Inuyasha guessed wildly.

"No."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." Inuyasha attempted to sit up… but still… for some reason he couldn't move. "So what do you plan to do with me? You can't kill me. You just said so yourself."

"Of course I can kill you." Naraku scoffed.

"But you just said-"

"A master can wish for anything he wants. Even the death and destruction of his little Wishbringer." Naraku smiled slowly. "But you already knew that."

Slow, cold horror crept up Inuyasha's spine as his words sank in with realisation. It made the fine hairs on the back of his neck bristle and his scalp to crawl. "You're bluffing…"

Naraku gave a small laugh and sat back. "I'd be ashamed if I were you. To get stuck inside this." He pulled a familiar looking plastic bottle from the pocket of his baby blue coloured jacket.

"How did you get that?!" Inuyasha raged angrily.

"Well, a housewife has a job to do - and that's to clean her daughter's room and pick up the litter she leaves around so carelessly." Naraku smirked and bopped Inuyasha on the head with it. "I found it in her underwear drawer… heh… I thought about breaking it… but it kept bouncing. And then I thought that maybe I could have my fun with it in a different way."

He began to unscrew the top. Inuyasha began to panic. "No! Don't!"

Naraku feigned a shocked little gasp as the lid dropped off and plopped into the white sand between them. Nothing much appeared to happen. "Well… I'm a little disappointed. I was expecting confetti and flashing lights to congratulate me on becoming the sixty fourth master of the Wishbringer Inuyasha." He shrugged and picked up the bottle cap to screw it back on. "Oh well. It can't be helped."

"Not again…" Inuyasha groaned as his head dropped balefully against the sand. It was happening all over again… history was just moving in one big circle. His finer senses were re-tuning themselves like they often did when a new master was assigned. The sixth sense that had alerted him of Onigumo's presence was now alerting him of Naraku's. For the first time he became aware of Naraku's life force… and realised just how bloody strong he was… the freak was just toying with him in reality. And he also became aware of a few of Naraku's deepest desires…

Needless to say they made him shudder. Most of them were about Kikyo, and/or Kagome. Inuyasha saw… or more like felt… all the nasty rather lewd things he wanted to do to Kagome… and somewhere near the bottom of that list - his desire to kill Inuyasha, slowly and full of torture.

"They say that Wishbringers can sense the emotions and unspoken wishes of their master." Naraku said evenly. "Is it true?"

"I didn't have to be able to be an empath to know that you're a sick bastard." Inuyasha said weakly. He really wished that he didn't have to see Naraku's desires, they were so twisted and corrupt that it made even Inuyasha a little queasy. Kagome's desires involved things like fluffy baby rabbits and ponies. The difference was explicit.

"You don't have to fill me in on the rules of wishes." Naraku told him with a lofty wave of the hand. "I know it all already. Ten wishes. No reviving dead people. No conjuring. No setting you free - but I doubt there's any danger of that happening. So… what shall I spend my first wish on, eh?"

Inuyasha's stomach did a flip-flop… he screwed his eyes shut and tried to will himself to disappear… to try and relocate himself elsewhere - somewhere with Kagome. But with a metal shaft through his core, he wasn't going anywhere.

"Oh don't look so worried!" Naraku scolded him in a very good impression of Kagome's giggly voice. "I'm not going to wish to rape Kagome. I could do that just as easily on my own."

"Leave Kagome out of this you asshole!" Inuyasha struggled violently to try and sit up and smack him hard… but his whole skeleton seemed to be locked up and rigid. "She's an innocent! She doesn't deserve all this!"

"Then we'll just have to corrupt her won't we?" Naraku said simply. "You and me together… You've already introduced her into our dangerous little reality. And I will show her how dangerous it can be."

He traced a hand luxuriously up his own leg… up Kagome's leg and gave a little sigh of appreciation. "So beautiful… so pure… though it's a hundred times better to touch the real thing." He smirked at Inuyasha. "You can't imagine the thrills I got when I touched her that one time… held her hot little body against mine… or was it yours?"

"Mother fucker."

"How rude." Naraku snapped a glare on him. "I could just wish you to turn you into a spoon right now."

Inuyasha was beginning to break out into a nervous sweat.

"Anyway… I don't think I'll kill you just yet. I'll save that till last." A slow nasty smile spread across his face, which looked severely out of place on Kagome's appearance. "Yes… I know… I think I shall make you my lap dog first and foremost. I can't think of a better blow to your pride… you're gonna hate this…"

^_^

"Where'd everyone go?" Kagome asked as she stepped in through the open screen doors and looked around the quiet house. Souta was all but pressed up against the huge plasma screen Tv as he watched more cartoons.

"Grandpa went out to buy more kiwi fruit. He likes it." Souta said without bothering to grace her with a glance.

"Urgh." She shuddered. She hated kiwi fruit. "Did Mom and Inuyasha go with him then?"

"Uh…" Souta rolled his eyes upwards to think. "Don't remember."

"Well, you're not very useful." Kagome huffed and went to go take a look around for Inuyasha and her mother. She checked the bedrooms, the cupboards, the cellar and the pantry, but found nothing out of the ordinary. That's when she began to worry.

Inuyasha's disappearance didn't worry her so much, after all, it wasn't so strange for him to disappear off the face of the earth like some kind of phantom. Because that was exactly what he was. However, her mother didn't go missing like that…

"Mom?!" Kagome yelled as she went outside again and circled the house. "Mom?! Inuyasha?!"

"Relax, Kagome." Souta called out of the house to her when she arrived back on the veranda. "They've probably just gone shopping together."

"Inuyasha doesn't shop." Kagome called back bluntly and chewed her lip as she scanned the beach below her for some sign of life.

Nothing…

"Where are they…?" She wondered aloud to herself… perhaps Inuyasha was still locking himself away in his sacred coke bottle, probably still angry about all that had been said earlier… but where was her mother?

Maybe she'd gone shopping… or had gone with Grandpa at least. There was probably nothing to worry about, but wouldn't she have left a note?

Kagome's thought processes stopped as her sharp gaze fell on a movement down on the beach. She stopped and stared, trying to see better, but it was a long way away. Though from what she could tell, there was some kind of animal trotting down from the very end of the beach, getting closer.

Out of mere curiosity she stepped off the veranda and took a few steps down the beaten path to the beach. He held a hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun and squinted.

It was a lion!

Kagome nearly shrieked and ran back inside to hide under the bed when she realised something valid. Lions weren't black. Or were they? Kagome was never much of a natural history expert, but she had the feeling her previous assumption was wrong. She took a few more steps down the path and peered out again. It was large, walked on four legs and was either black of navy blue… probably black in which case. It quite steadily mooched along the sand with its head to the ground like a small grazing horse.

Was it a horse?

No, it was too hairy…

Whatever it was stopped in its tracks and suddenly lifted its head - looking directly in her direction. Then it barked and started to charge straight for her.

Kagome froze and stared in horror. There was a massive black dog running at her - what did she do?!

At a loss of options, she screamed, turned, and then ran for dear life back towards the house. She was confident she'd be able to make it inside and lock all the doors and windows before that thing caught up with her, so she was particularly surprised (and horrified) when the large dog overshot her and screeched to a halt, blocking her path to the house.

Kagome didn't waste any time scrambling to turn and rabbit off in the direction of the beach again. She'd just made it onto the sand when she realised it was still chasing her. "Leave me alone you big mutt!"

It only barked more angrily at her.

Luck happened to be taking a strike against her that day and she gave a squeak as she tripped and skidded to a halt using her face in the sand. Instantly she threw her arms over her head and pressed herself down. "Don't eat me!" she yelled in a panicky voice.

The dog arrived beside her, she heard its heavy breathing and smelt the distinct smell of a salty wet dog arrive with it. She waited for it to sink its teeth into her or maul her to death in some way, but all it did was nudge her with its muzzle, trying to roll her over. Kagome, not really wanting to expose her belly, remained where she was.

For a while she held herself down tighter until she realised that it wasn't attacking her. Instead it was pushing and prodding at her quietly as it padded around her with hasty steps. She slowly pushed herself up using her arms and came nose to snout with the biggest dog she'd ever seen. She almost fainted then and there. She'd thought it had been big before… but crouched on the ground on her hands and knees she found herself craning her neck to look up at it. It was a lot bigger than she was, but strangely enough, she didn't feel so scared now. But only because it hadn't eaten her.

"Whoa…" she breathed as she tried to calm her heart and nerves. "You're big…"

She scooted back slightly, only to have it take a step after her. She froze and stared at it, before shuffling back a metre or so. Two strides and it caught up with her. Confusion set in. "What?" she asked loudly. "What do you want from me? Food?!"

The dog just watched her… in a way that made her think it was almost trying to tell her something. Oh dear… perhaps she'd been watching too many reruns of Lassie.

"What did you say? Timmy's trapped down the old mine and can't get out? Oh no!" she joked as she got to her feet and brushed down her clothes. "Well now thanks to you I've got sand all up my nose and in my hair and all sorts of unmentionable places." She took a moment to glance around to make sure no one was watching before she untied the back of her bikini top and flapped out the sand for a few moments before tying it up again.

The dog stared shamelessly. She frowned at it, considering the animal. "Did you lose your master or something?" she guessed absently as she shook out her sandy hair.

It lowered it's head, almost miserably.

"I'm looking for someone too." She told it. "And I'm also talking to a dog. So I'm crazy on top of all that."

With a sigh she turned around and headed back to the house, mentally wishing the dog well on its mission to find whoever it belonged to. But she slowly drew to a stop when she heard it padding after her. She frowned down suspiciously at the large creature and folded her arms. "You must be seriously lost…" there weren't any people around for at least a mile other than her family. "I take it you live on this island."

It only carried on watching her with that silently pleading look. "Oh I know…" she suddenly caught. "You want food, don't you?" she was met with no obvious reaction. "Well you ain't getting any! You scared me - so you can go eat a jellyfish for all I care!"

She turned and stalked back to the house, too anxious about her mother and Inuyasha to worry about feeding some stray animals. She was about to head inside when she realised the dog was still on her heels. She turned quickly and spread her arms and legs to block the doorway. "You aren't coming in here! Not with those muddy paws!"

"Who're you talking to?" Souta called, appearing behind her. He peered around her body and spotted the large monster dog. "Cool! It's huge! Can we keep him! Can we name him Inuyasha?!"

"I really don't think Inuyasha would like that…" Kagome said slowly, before remembering herself. "And no we can't keep it! It doesn't belong to us!"

"It's not an it! It's a he!"

"It could be a she for all you know." Kagome shot back. "And it's not coming in here, are you girl?"

"It's a boy!"

"It's a girl!" Kagome shot back. "See all the glossy fur - only a girl could be that clean - boys are messy pigs."

Suddenly a new voice broke into the conflict. "What's that animal doing here?"

The two siblings looked up to see their Grandfather approaching across the veranda, having come around the corner of the house upon hearing the raised voices.

"She followed me - I think it's a stray." Kagome told him, still refusing to budge from the doorway in case it trotted in and left mud prints everywhere.

"Can we keep it?!" Souta begged Grandpa.

"But it probably belongs to someone else." Grandpa reasoned as he strolled forward in his shorts and Hawaiian shirt, and a bag of kiwi fruit under his arm. "That's one fine animal… a Basmalti if I'm correct."

"But Basmalti is a rice, Grandpa." Kagome pointed out.

Grandpa shrugged as he knelt down and scratched the animal between the perky upright ears. "Ah, but this breed is famous for its size - specifically bred for a Queen in Braune. It's origins go back nearly a millennia in that country. She used to keep at least ten of this particular breed of dog - used them to fetch things and hunt and things like that. That's why the Basmalti breed is nicknamed the Lap-Dog."

"You just made that up." Souta accused.

"I did not." Grandpa defended himself. "Very rare breed, very docile and friendly."

The dog growled heavily and all three took a wary step back.

"I think it's hungry." Souta said suddenly. "We can give it a few of the steaks in the fridge!" he ran off to go fetch them.

"Souta - that's our dinner - you can't give him those!" she yelled after him, turning to look after him as she did so. The dog took the opportunity to slip past her pad into the house. "Oh no you don't!" she lunged after the animal and hooked her arms around its neck, attempting to drag it back out the door. It didn't budge, but instead carried on walking deeper into the house as though she wasn't even there.

Eventually she gave up and let it go, flopping on the living room carpet as she released it. "Whatever… I didn't want to stop you anyway." She shouted after the dog as it padded away in its exploration of the house, following some kind of scent trail with its nose close to the ground.

"You seem touchy, Kagome dear," Her Grandpa commented from behind her.

"Yeah well…" she sighed and picked herself up off the floor. "Where's Mom anyway? I've been looking for her but I can't find her or Inuyasha anywhere." She'd also been looking for his bottle but that had turned out to be a fruitless search.

"Maybe they went shopping together."

"I doubt it." Kagome sighed and opened her mouth to voice more of her concern when the black dog began barking loudly. She turned to see what the matter was, only to see it pawing insistently at her mother's bedroom door. "What's the matter?" she went over with Grandpa and ushered the dog out of the way to open the door.

It swung back and they looked in. Nothing was out of place. Kagome looked down at the large canine. "You're weird." She was about to turn and leave them to it when she noticed the dog entering her mother's room. "No - that's a white carpet - you can't walk mud in there you-"

She cut herself short as she scrambled after it, rounding the corner of the bed as she did so. There was her mother, lying flat out on the floor. Fear shot through her at once and she threw herself past the motionless dog to her mother's side. "Mom!" she shook her shoulders. "Mom - wake up! Mom!"

"What… what…?" Mrs Higurashi stirred gently and rapidly blinked open her eyes. "What's going on?"

With a little help from Kagome she managed to sit up, still a little disorientated. She darted a look from Kagome, to the dog, to Grandpa, to Souta who had just entered with a bag of crisps in hand, and then back to the dog. "What's that dog doing walking mud all over my nice clean carpet?"

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. She was ok… but she'd had her worried for a moment there. "Are you ok, Mom?"

"Yes, yes, I'm ok." she nodded quickly. "I think… well… I was coming in here to get changed, too hot you see, and then I think I must have fainted." She smiled and patted her daughter's hand. "Don't worry, I don't handle the heat well, that's all."

After assuring everyone that she was perfectly fine and dandy, Mrs Higurashi went off to cook supper for everyone as the day began drawing to a close and the sun sunk towards the horizon. Kagome's worry was now focused solely on Inuyasha, now that her mother was found to be safe. She turned irritably to the dog that was still following her around the house. "You wouldn't help me sniff him out would you?"

The dog just watched her.

With a grumble she stalked off outside, locking the dog inside the house as she did so, and went to go sit on the edge of the veranda to watch the sunset.

It was probably because she'd upset him, and brought up a painful subject for Inuyasha yesterday. He'd never liked talking about Kikyo, or his emotions for that matter. He'd done some analogy with a bunch of biscuits so he could poke fun at it and laugh… but that was just a typical case of covering up some deep seated fear or anger with humour. She nearly have a scoff of sarcasm. Like she'd never done that before in her life time.

The screen door inched open behind her and she heard the click of claws on the veranda.

"Oh boy…" she dropped her head into her hands. "Where the hell did you learn to open screen doors?" she asked sulkily as the dog appeared beside her and sat down. He was distinctly a head higher than her as they sat. She grudgingly reached out a hand and ruffled his shaggy mane of fur.

The dog didn't bother her too much as she went back to her thoughts. Kikyo and Inuyasha… it bothered her more than she'd liked to admit - though she was far from being jealous… it was mostly because she was worried for him. He was obviously beating himself up over having killed her with his own hands… despite how Kagome tried to convince him that it hadn't been his fault. That it had been Kikyo's choice, not his.

"He didn't love her…" Kagome said softly, somehow feeling the need to get things off her chest and into the open air. She needed someone to confide in. Someone who preferably wouldn't talk back and judge it all. The dog would do. She hooked an arm around its shoulders and absently scratched behind one of its ears. "How's that possible? To not love someone if you want to love them?"

She lapsed into silence for a moment. Though she had the ridiculous feeling that the dog beside her was hanging onto her every word. She looked up and smiled weakly at the creature. "I suppose he was just looking for the right someone to come along and make his cookie complete, wasn't he?" she sighed and looked out to where the sun was sinking down so quickly she could almost see it moving as it touched the horizon. "I think he's right. He would have been hurt if he'd loved her. But that still means he's hurt… and he seems to be taking it out on me… do I really look like her? What do you think?" she asked the dog.

It just blinked at her.

"What would you know?" she said hotly. "You're just a dog." She sighed and looked back at the sunset. "It seems like he wants to forget her. Put it behind him and forget the pain, I guess. Well that's just stupid. He thinks I'm too naïve and stupid to know what it's like to grieve." She lowered her head bitterly, almost feeling a prickle of tears. "But I know… that if you care about someone so much, you can't just forget them and the grief. It's just wrong and disrespectful."

The dog shifted uncomfortably beside her.

"Though I wish he wouldn't feel so guilty about it…" she dropped her hand away from the dog. "It's not his fault. I'm sure Kikyo really would forgive him if she were around."

It was such a tragedy… for Onigumo to come along and mess up Kikyo's life, and Inuyasha's emotions like that. And now Naraku was going to make an even bigger mess of the poor boy. Why couldn't they all just leave him alone? "It's like the whole world is against him." She shook her head and clicked her tongue. "But I guess that's just what they call karma."

A deep growl rumbled in the large dogs chest and she eyed him warily. "You know, for a dog, you don't bark that much. And for a friendly dog, you don't lick people much either."

It blinked more slowly at her. Obviously it didn't think licking was very dignified.

"I dare you to lick my hand." She held it up before his nose. The great beast gave something that sounded suspiciously like a snort before turning away. She shrugged and reclined back on her hands. "Your loss."

The sun was, by now, half hidden into the sea and Kagome rolled her stiff neck to the side to work out the kinks. After a few more minutes of silence she gave a sigh. "I miss Inuyasha… where'd he go?" she muttered. "What if he's still mad at me…?"

She was quite stunned when the dog beside her suddenly slumped onto its front legs and laid its heavy head on her lap. "Ah… see?" she smiled and scratched between its ears affectionately. "You aren't so tough after all. But that still doesn't mean you can live here… we're leaving in a few days and we can't take a dog back home with us on the plane."

Her thoughts dwelled on what would happen when they returned back home and her smile slipped away slightly. Her affectionate scratching slipped into a gentle stroke along the black dog's head. It closed its eyes under her ministrations and went as limp and docile as a dead dog.

"I wonder if Naraku's still waiting for us back there…?" Kagome whispered out of the blue.

The dog's ears perked upright suddenly and she blinked as it lifted its head out of her lap and stood quickly, its eyes and ears tuned forward towards the darkening beach. "What?" she asked. "Do you hear the sheep being rustled, Lassie?"

How sad did she have to be to joke with a dog?

The canine suddenly lopped off a few metres away, searching through the tall grass among the rockery. Kagome watched him with growing curiosity. "What are you doing?"

The dog, strangely enough, didn't reply, and went on snuffling through the grass in search of something she could only guess at. After a moment or two it suddenly came ambling back with a stick between its teeth, dropping it at her feet.

"You want to play fetch?" she asked incredulously. She picked up the stick and regarded it with a sigh. "Alright… as long as I don't have to get up or anything."

Kagome pulled her arm back and tossed it a few metres away. She shrugged and pointed. "Go fetch, girl!"

The dog didn't budge… in fact it seemed to be glaring at her.

Kagome frowned and stood up to go fetch it herself. She drew her arm back and threw it again. The dog still didn't make any move to fetch it back to her. She threw her arms up. "What do you want from me? I thought you wanted to play fetch!"

The dog trotted off again and Kagome waited, stumped, until it came back again a few moments later carrying a slightly large stick. He dropped it at her feet and looked up expectantly. Kagome just shrugged helplessly. "What are we playing here? Fetch Kagome a Stick and See Which One she Stabs you With?"

She picked up the larger stick and threw it. The dog seemed to heave a sigh and walked off in the opposite direction to which she'd thrown in, and came back a minute later with an even larger stick.

"This is ridiculous. It isn't making any sense…" she grumbled as she picked up the stick it was offering to her. She picked it up and weighed it in her hands. "Are you too cool to play fetch or something or are you teasing me? You're not a real dog are you."

It barked. It didn't often bark and she frowned as she tried to think what it might be trying to tell her. Once more she drew her arm and aimed towards the beach, then threw it as hard as she could. It spun through the air until it eventually clattered into the sand. She looked back at the dog and enunciated clearly as she pointed. "Fetch! F-E-T-C-H! Fetch!"

The dog gave her another one of those slanted looks before trotting off after the stick she'd thrown. "Ah!" she clapped her hands. "And the dog gets a brain!"

The dog picked up the stick, but instead of trotting obediently back, it started dragging it through the sand in strange, thought-out patterns. Kagome frowned as she padded down the same track the dog had taken to the beach and stopped dead as the dog stopped messing around and looked back up to her with the stick still in his mouth.

It had just written 'Bite me' rather clearly in the sand.

"Wha… you… but…" Kagome pointed in shock at the words as she gaped at the dog. The thoughts were flicking by too fast for her mouth to catch up. "But you're a - dogs don't write - and… don't… understand how…"

She staggered further down the path and came to an abrupt halt in the sand just below the words. She read them. And read them again. And then reread them just to be sure. "But how… how is that possible?"

Kagome turned her gaze towards the dog who seemed to be shifting from foot to foot to foot impatiently… "What are you?" she asked loudly, in a horrified sort of voice. "Are you another shape shifter like Naraku… or… Inuyasha?"

For a moment she could have sworn the dog looked pained, before it quickly started drawing more characters in the sand. He'd gone as far as the second character, spelling out 'Inu' and 'Ya' but had to stop and drop his stick when Kagome emitted a short, sharp scream.

"Inuyasha?!" she gaped at him. "Inuyasha - is that you?!"

The big black dog barked.

"What are you doing?!" she all but screamed again. "You're a dog! Why did you turn yourself into a dog! Turn back this instant!"

He growled at her, obviously it seemed that he disagreed with her. She dashed towards him and fell to her knees before him, suddenly unable to keep from fisting her hands in his shaggy mane of fur. "What are you doing like this - don't you have any idea how worried I've been about you?! Mom went missing and you went missing and I thought you were mad at me because of what I said yesterday and oh my god! I took my bikini off in front of you - you damn pervert you did that on pur-!"

He barked suddenly, right in her face, startling her out of her babble. She blinked and suddenly flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you! What were you thinking?! How come you're a dog?"

She drew back and looked at him… before she couldn't overcome the squeal of delight that rose up. She grabbed his ears and ruffled them. "You're just too cute! Maybe this is an improvement?"

He gave a small sniff, and then sneezed in her face.

Kagome froze and screwed her expression up, barely daring to breathe. "Eeeew… that's disgusting…" she released him to wipe her arm over her face. "Doggy germs…"

He butted her away from him gently and padded a few feet away across the sand, then looked back at her and barked. Kagome frowned, trying to understand. "You can't change back, can you?"

He barked again, and if a dog could nod, he did so just then. It took a lot of effort it seemed, but his head went up and down so she took it as a 'yes' response.

"Do you want me to wish you back?" she asked dubiously. He responded with a more emphatic bark. "Ok… but if you're really just a dog then I'm going to look pretty stupid." She steeled herself and pressed her fingers into the sand nervously. She really didn't want to mess this up, so she thought hard about how to phrase the wish before she said it and closed her eyes tightly whilst she did so. "I wish for you to change back into the form you usually use…" she cracked open an eye, about to add a small 'is that right?' but the word died on her tongue as she suddenly found herself having to raise her gaze to look up at Inuyasha's face.

"Urgh!" he growled angrily as he spat a bit of bark out of his mouth. "Took you long enough! You're so fucking slow! I thought I'd be stuck like that forever!"

"Um… Inuyasha…?"

"Do you know how embarrassing it is to walk around like a pet?!" he ranted. "Do you?! I kept trying to hint - but you were so fucking blind - if there was an award for being slow and dull you would so be the winner! I can't believe I spent the whole day down on all fours - I walked on some glass and look!" he held up his hand and jabbed a finger at a cut on his palm. "It bloody hurt and I couldn't do anything about it!"

Kagome wasn't looking at his hand. "Inuyasha…?"

"Bleeding ridiculous…" he muttered angrily, working the little shard of glass out of his hand. "Disaster strikes us and all you can do is play fetch with me, you're so-"

"Slow! I know! You don't have to tell me again!" she interrupted him loudly, a little red in the cheeks. "I think you should know something-"

"Now's not the time!" he interrupted her as well. "Because I think you should know something too-"

Kagome cut him off again. "Put some clothes on or something!" she yelled, clenching her fists and closing her eyes as she willed her face not to feel so hot. "You're naked over there!"

He stopped, looking down at himself and then snapped a glare on her. "So? What of it? This isn't the time to get dressed - this is the time to panic and-"

"There is always the time to get dressed!" she shouted hotly and stood up to head back to the house, unable to look in his general direction again without her eyes falling to… that…

How could he be so unabashed about something like that?! She pondered this as she fanned her face and tried to make her escape. But something he said made her stop.

"Naraku's here."

Kagome stiffened and stared off into the distance, but she didn't turn around to face him.

"And…" he seemed to choose his words carefully. "…We're in trouble."

It summed up everything perfectly well.

AN: Ok, and we're back to the Naraku plot again! Yay! Or not so Yay in some people's opinions (mostly mine). Sometimes I wish I could just write that he takes a fall off a cliff and dies so that he won't bother anyone anymore… but believe me, that would get more boos than cheers.