InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen Rose Petals ❯ All In A Month ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A New King

All In A Month

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and will not ever own Inuyasha.

AN: This chapter was ready two days after I posted the prologue, but my computer wouldn't let me log in! The next chapter should be out in a couple of days as long as my computer continues working. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Kagome yanked her long dress up to her knees and waded out into the water. It was a warm day in early summer and the cool water felt good against her hot skin. She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds all around her. She could clearly hear the water around her legs, rushing towards an ocean she'd never seen. Behind that, the faint sounds of animals searching the forest for food and shelter met her ears. Above her, a lone blue jay sang. Kagome opened her eyes to stare up at the beautiful creature that seemed to be singing just for her.

Grinning, Kagome began to twirl around in the water, splashing her way towards the shore. "What a wonderful day it is!" Finding a nice flat boulder, she sat down, leaving her feet to trail in the stream. A rabbit hopped its way over to her as it nibbled on some great find. Kagome laughed and leaned back on the warm boulder to stare up at the sky, a wonderful shade of blue, with many puffy clouds floating by.

"Eeeep!" Kagome shrieked as something fuzzy crawled on her arm. She sighed when she realized it was only a small caterpillar. It made its way slowly up her arm, searching for something good to eat. Kagome giggled and found a tasty leaf to offer it. She smiled sadly at the eating caterpillar, envious of its simple live. The fuzzy creature didn't have nearly as much to worry about as she did. It was blessed enough to live out its whole life by this stream, while she had to stay in that stuffy castle and do boring work all day. "Oh, why couldn't I have been born a caterpillar?"

"Do you always talk to yourself?" asked a small voice from behind her. Kagome whipped around to find the face of Shippou, her messenger, smiling back at her.

"Only when I'm alone"

Shippou laughed quietly then sat down beside her on the stone. "It's a great day to be outside. If only I didn't have such a strict boss to make me work on a day like this," he teased.

Kagome shoved Shippou playfully, "Well maybe if you bribed her with chocolate, she'd consider letting you have some time off."

"I'll have to remember that."

"The kind with caramel, please!"

Shippou laughed, "Sometimes you act younger than me, you know."

"That's the luxury of a princess for you."

"Acting immature?"

"No, failing to be mature from lack of responsibility," Kagome stated.

"Ruling a kingdom is a lot of responsibility."

"I won't be allowed to rule, I'm a girl remember."

"Yeah, but you'd be a much better ruler than any guy I know."

"You should meet more people."

Shippou stared into the forest for a while. "Your mother rules."

"Only because there's not a man of royal blood to do the job for her. Even now, it's the advisors who take most of the duties. They wouldn't want her to break a nail."

"That'll help me sleep at night."

Kagome looked at Shippou questioningly.

"Those men lack humanity. They only care about the bigger picture. To them, I'm highly disposable."

"Shippou, don't say that! It's not true!"

"To them it is."

Kagome still thought of Shippou as the little boy he had been when she'd first found him, alone and scared. She could still remember how his mud-caked fingers had held so fiercely onto her own arm as he walked with her into the castle. A bath, a warm meal, and much coaxing later, the poor boy had poured his heart out to the young princess. He had had a hard life. After his mother's slow death from an unknown illness, he had watched his father's own death, certain that his would soon follow. He had managed to escape, however, when soldiers from The Western Lands happened to pass by the battle. A long time ally of Shikon, and it's protector in exchange for the military intelligence Shikon was known for, the Western Lands often patrolled the western borders, helping those in need. As Shippou told it, it had been King Toga himself to save him. He had vowed to one-day serve as a patrolling solider. Life as an orphan was harder than he had thought though, and when Kagome had found him, almost starved; he had jumped on the chance to stay with her.

Her father had allowed him to take a job as her messenger. The King held a soft spot for the little kitsune, and Kagome had assumed it had had to do with her young brother's recent illness. As her life gradually took a turn for the worse, Shippou had been there to comfort her. He knew what it was like to lose a family member, and Kagome knew that had it not been for him, her spirit would have broken long ago. When her brother passed, he had held her, as she had held him when they had first met.

Six years later, he was growing into a young man, but he was still a boy in Kagome's heart. It threw her off when he was so blunt.

"Sometimes, you act a lot older than me, you know?"

Shippou grinned.

"Did you have a message for me?" she asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot! You're mother has requested your presence."

"What about?"

"She wouldn't say, just that it was very important."

Kagome looked down where the caterpillar still lay, eating its small leaf. "Alright, I'll be right there, you go ahead of me, okay?"

"Are you sure, Lady Kagome?"

"Yes, Shippou."

"You sure you're feeling okay?"

"Yes, Shippou."

"And you'll be right there? No avoiding your mother?"

"Shippou..."

"Okay, okay, I'm going. But remember, if you don't show up, I'm the one who's going to get punished. You wouldn't want to get a poor kitsune like me in trouble, would you, Kagome?" Shippou shuddered. "I can't even imagine what those advisors might do to me."

Kagome smiled. Shippou always did that too her. "Of course not. I just want to think about something for a moment."

Shippou nodded then ran off. Kagome followed his movements until he disappeared. She wondered what her mother wanted to speak to her about. Did she want to talk about her father again? Kagome sighed. A month had passed since the murder of her father. Since then she'd been so busy helping her mother, she didn't have time to do the things she liked to do anymore. Kagome closed her eyes, but reopened them quickly when images of her father, lying in his bed, blood everywhere, and his head thrown carelessly in a chair flashed before her. The same chair he used to spend hours in reading to her.

Kagome stood up and shook the depressing thoughts from her mind. Today was too beautiful of a day to be thinking such bad thoughts. She straightened her dress, wincing at the grass stain on the back. "Great, Mother's going to kill me when she sees I've ruined yet another dress!" Kagome raced up the small hill to the dirt path that would take her home, her attention staying on her mother. She'd been so sad since her own father, Kagome's grandfather, had died.

***

"You're what?!"

Kagome's mouth hung open in shock. She couldn't believe it. She just couldn't believe what her mother was telling her. She wondered for a minute if she was dreaming, and pinched herself discretely, cringing at the implications of the pain she felt. This was real. Before the month was up, she'd be married.

"Kagome, dear, I know you're still young, but my health is failing me, and I can't leave you to run the country all alone."

Kagome stared down at her bare feet. Her mother was right. After she'd finally pulled herself from crying into her pillow all day, her mother had begun falling into long fits of unconsciousness following violent coughing fits. She'd be out for hours at a time. Kagome cringed when she remembered the last incident. It had happened in the middle of the night. She'd been so worried with all the blood her mother had coughed up, so she stayed with her all night, and well into the day, praying she wouldn't be made an orphan.

"I've arranged a party for next Saturday evening. You will meet your potential suitors there. I'm sure there are many nice gentlemen who would love your hand in marriage."

"They all want to marry me for power, not for love."

The queen looked into her daughter's eyes and tried to remember why she was making her do this again. Breaking her daughter's dream of marrying a man she loved was never one of her goals. However, this was something she had to do. Her daughter wouldn't last a week ruling by herself. Kagome had too good of a soul. She'd try to help everyone, and that just wasn't possible. A ruler had to sacrifice some people's happiness for the happiness of all the people. When one death could save hundreds of lives, then you had to make that decision, and the queen knew her daughter wouldn't give up her fairy tale tactics of saving them all. She reached a caring hand towards her daughter.

"Kagome, dear..."

"No!" Kagome jerked away. "I won't marry some creep who will spend all his time with his advisors! I want someone to care for me, not the power or the money that comes with me. I hate all this!"

"But you are the heir to the throne."

"I don't want the throne! I wish I was a peasant."

Kagome didn't hear her mother's response. She'd already fled the room before the queen could find her voice.

***

"Sir?"

Kouga sighed, rubbing the heels of his hands over his eyes. The work of a ruler was never finished. He'd been up for days on end solving one problem or another. What he needed was help - someone who he could trust to make a few of his decisions for him - but no one else was good enough in his eyes.

"Yes?"

"Lord Kouga, I bring news from Shikon, in the South."

"Shikon?"

"Yes, my lord. The Queen is holding a party. She wishes to marry off her daughter, Princess Kagome."

A small light bulb went off somewhere in Kouga's sleep depraved mind. If he were to marry the princess, the fighting between their people might come to an end. Hundreds of demons had fallen to the hands of the priestesses in the past year. Long before he was born, the wolf youkai of his land had been fighting with the humans and demons of Shikon. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to take control of the problem. Whether he was a good ruler or not didn't seem to matter to them. After fighting all their lives, they weren't easy to persuade to stop.

The princess was rumored to be all beauty and no brains. She would be easy to win over. He'd give her charm, lots of gifts, and one of his bright smiles, and she'd be his. She wouldn't be much use as a Queen, but he'd do anything to halt the fighting right now.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Sir?"

"Prepare for my leave."

"Yes, my lord." The scrawny wolf raced from the room with fear in his eyes.

***

"Lord Naraku."

Naraku jumped out of his seat, turning on the intruder. "What the hell do you want?"

It was one of the newer servants to the castle, not yet use to the two sides to Naraku - the nice, kind, yet controlled man he was around the royal family and others of great importance, compared to the terrifying presence he commanded around the servants. He trembled slightly under Naraku's glare, bowing his head in apology.

"Well, out with it!" Naraku roared.

"I...I'm...uh...my lord, I'm sorry."

"THAT'S what you came in here for?"

"No, no my lord, I have a message for you." The servant stared questioningly at Naraku, waiting for his approval to continued, but was greeted with two cold uncaring eyes and a firmly closed jaw.

"Um...see...the thing is-"

"Good god! Where the hell do they find you people?"

The servant gulped audibly. Quickly he sat down the party invitation then turned on his heels, high-tailing it out of Naraku's quarters. For fear of Naraku growing angry at his quick escape, he hollered, "Call for me if you have any more questions!" over his shoulders before disappearing from view to whimper softly in a fetal position under his cot.

Unsure whether to yell out in anger after the escaping servant or laugh evilly (which he secretly took great pleasure in doing), Naraku resorted to reading the small invitation.

Naraku's eyes narrowed, and his aura flickered dangerously around him. This would completely ruin his plans. He would never be able to gain control of Shikon, much less the world, if she married.

Even as he angrily shredded the piece of paper into small bits and pieces, an idea began to form in his mind. With a quick look around his room for possible eavesdroppers, Naraku let out an evil laugh.

***

"A-ha! King me!"

"Inuyasha, we're playing go fish."

"So?"

Miroku shook his head. He'd never understand Inuyasha. He was a genius when it came to battle tactics or politics, but he couldn't comprehend something like go fish. It probably had something to do with all the rules. Inuyasha had never been the kind to follow them. In fact, he seemed to spend his whole existence breaking them.

He remembered, even as a young child, Inuyasha loved to do anything he shouldn't. Inuyasha had gone through a phase of playing pranks, and Miroku had been his favorite target. He'd found too many snakes in his bed (live ones, of course) to count. As he grew older, his offenses had become more serious. The man had probably committed every sin he knew. Miroku could only pray Inuyasha didn't know as many he himself did.

Miroku's thoughts were broken by a low whistle from Inuyasha. "Take a look at that bitch," he exclaimed, eyes pinned to the window. Whipping his head around at the speed of light, Miroku searched outside for the mentioned woman, but found no one but a few stable men.

"I'm sorry, Inuyasha, but I can't see...hey! cheater! You can't do that!"

"Pervert," was Inuyasha's reply as he searched the pile of cards for a match to his own.

Miroku sighed and put down his cards, he was tired of playing this game anyway. He looked around the room for something interesting to occupy his time with, but found nothing but two tired looking cots, the only furniture they had, and a small pack of belongings in the corner. Inuyasha had brought them when they'd left the castle. The bag consisted of a few spare clothing articles, a canteen, and varying coins. Beside that, sat his old and tattered sword.

Inuyasha pulled Miroku from his thoughts once again, "Hey, take a look at that."

"Oh no, I'm not falling for that again."

"Feh. Looks like my almighty brother's gotten himself yet another messenger."

"Did he kill the last one already?"

"Who knows what he does with them."

A few moments of silence passed as the gears turned around in Inuyasha's head.

"Do you think..."

Miroku didn't have a chance to finish. Inuyasha quickly stood and exited their small room, already running after the messenger.