InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inoku ❯ Chapter 2

Part 2

"Shippou-chan!" Sango cried, kneeling down next to the fallen man who had just uttered Kagome's name. "Take Kirara and go back to the spring. See if you can find any trace of the boys."

"Right!" Shippou nodded, hopping up onto Kirara's back. Together, they ran off in the direction of the hot spring, leaving Sango and Kagome to deal with the black-haired stranger. Not wasting any time on modesty, Sango rolled the man onto his back. For her part, Kagome had to take a handkerchief out of her pocket and lay it across his lap before she felt comfortable enough to examine him.

"He almost looks like Inuyasha…" Kagome leaned in closely, carefully inspecting his face. "The way Inuyasha looks when it's a new moon and his youkai blood ebbs away. Look Sango-chan!" She reached down to gently touch the prayer beads around the man's neck. "But he doesn't look right…" she said sadly, shaking her head. "His face is different. Look at his eyebrows and his nose, they're softer. His features are more gentle, almost like Miro-"

"Kagome-chan!" Sango cried out suddenly, her hand flying up to cover her mouth in shock. As Kagome stared intently, Sango reached down and picked up the man's right hand, lifting it up for her to see. The hand and most of the forearm were swathed in a dark purple cloth. A gold ring on the middle finger held the cloth in place at the top, and a length of blue rosary was wrapped around the palm of his hand and continued down the forearm.

"Kazaana…" Kagome gasped, her eyes as wide as teacups. "It can't be!"

"I know! But look at the fingers, Kagome-chan!" Doing as she was told, Kagome proceeded to examine the left hand, the one closest to her own knee.

"Claws…" she breathed, looking up at Sango, her eyebrows drawn tightly together in the middle of her face. Sango nodded, her face mirroring the younger girl's.

"What does this mean?"

"Kagome! Sango!" Shippou called, returning to the camp. Kirara followed a few steps behind him, two sets of robes draped across her back. Shippou had managed to loop the string from one of his tops around the hilt of the Tetsusaiga and was dragging it along behind him.

"I almost forgot that I can't touch it." he explained. "I would have been one fried little kit! We looked and looked, but this is all we found… Kagome? Sango?" Shippou looked from one worried face to the other, and he began to feel afraid.

"It can't be…" Kagome repeated, returning her attention to the man on the ground. "Inu…yasha?" she called softly and uncertainly. Prompted by the sound of her voice, the man began to stir. His eyelids fluttered open to reveal a pair of wildly confused, violet eyes.

"Kagome?" he groaned, his eyes taking a moment to focus on her face. When it seemed he could see clearly again, he began to struggle into a sitting position. Moving quickly, she put a hand behind his back and helped him up.

"Are you alright?" Kagome asked, keeping her arm around his shoulders in case he started to faint and fell back again.

"Ugnn…My head feels like it's about to split open." he murmured, squinting his eyes. "Where's Miroku?" Kagome and Sango exchanged worried looks.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome began, unsure of what she was going to say next, when she suddenly froze, her voice dying in her throat as she felt his left hand reach up and firmly grab her bottom.

"What are you doing?!" she squeaked, her facing practically glowing bright pink.

"Huh? Oh gods, what AM I doing?" He exclaimed, drawing his hand back before she felt inclined to break his fingers. "I don't know what just came over me…my head…" He started to bring his right hand up to touch his forehead, then stopped when he noticed what was covering it.

"What in all the hells?" he mused curiously, staring at the beads and the cloth. Using his other hand, he slowly unwound the rosary from around his wrist. He was about to lift the beads off his palm and remove the fabric, when his face suddenly contorted into a look of sheer terror and panic.

"DON'T!" he screamed, roughly tugging the fabric down and re-wrapping the rosary with a practiced speed and ease. "Baka!" he cried. "You almost sucked them in!"

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, touching his shoulder gently.

"Forgive me, Kagome-sama, Sango…" he said, panting, his heart pounding like a cannon in his chest. "I-I don't know what's happening, it's like I'm hearing two voices inside of my head." He looked up at both women, his eyes brimming over with fear and uncertainty. He was totally unprepared for what happened next.

"Ho…Houshi-sama!" Sango cried fiercely, tears spilling out of her eyes as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged his head to her breast.

"Sango…" he said, his voice full of wonder as he buried his face into her bosom, his next sentence coming out a little muffled. "I didn't realize you felt this way about me."

"Rrrgh! Get off!" she cried, pushing him away from her chest. "Of course I was worried, I'm worried about…both…of you?" she trailed off, questioning as she searched his eyes.

"What's happened to you Houshi-sama?"

"I'm not sure." he answered softly, staring back up at her. "I remember the scorpion was coming toward me, and Inuyasha jumped into it's path…then everything when white, and then black and the next thing I know I'm sitting here with you both in front of me about to open the kazaana! But I don't remember anything before that! It was as if I had just woken up at that moment…"

"Miroku?" Shippou asked quietly, coming up behind the stranger who spoke like his friend, the hoshi. The man spun around when he heard his voice, and saw the kitsune dragging the Tetsusaiga behind him on a string.

"You little shit!" he growled, his hand shooting out and grabbing Shippou around the middle. He squeezed the kit violently and brought him within inches of his teeth, which at this close proximity Shippou now noticed were fangs. "What have I told you about playing with my katana?!"

"Inuyasha?!" Shippou screamed, eyes widening with panic. "Kagome! Help me!"

"Uh…osuwari?" she said hesitantly, but it produced the desired effect. He was thrown violently to the ground, face first.

"Ow…" he moaned a second later. "What just happened?"

"Oh! Miroku-sama!" Kagome exclaimed, rushing to his side. "I'm so sorry, I-" she stopped as he rose to his knees and began to finger the beads around his neck.

"What in the world…?" Slowly, he began to raise the restraining ward over his head.

"No!" Kagome cried. "Don't take those off Miroku-sama!"

"Heh. Stop me, bitch!" he growled, his voice changing as a wicked grin spread over his face.

"Osuwari!" she cried again and he hit the ground hard. Struggling against the subduing spell, he raised his head up as high as he could and gave Kagome a murderous look.

"Are you trying to kill me?!" two voices screamed simultaneously out of the same mouth, followed by a look of horror on the young man's face as he realized what it was he had just done. "Where's MirInoukuyasha?" he cried out, his voice breaking with panic. Kagome walked over to the struggling boy and helped him to his feet, taking his hand in her own. Sango joined them a second later, taking his other hand. Turning their back on the camp and an astonished Shippou, they guided him back to the hot spring.

Coaxing him to the water's edge, Kagome and Sango stood behind the boy as he looked down at his own reflection.

"That's not mine…" Inuyasha whispered, reaching up to touch his nose, his eyes never leaving the glassy surface of the water.

"Those eyes are." he said a moment later. "But I've only ever seen them on the nights when you're a human… The ears are mine. Look, they still have the gold hoops."

"Well I'll be damned…you're right." Listening to the boy before them carry out an entire conversation with himself soon became too disturbing for either woman. With a sideways glance at each other, they began to slowly back away from their friend.

"We're going back to the camp so that you can be alone…" Sango shook her head and started again. "We're going back to camp. We'll send Shippou to bring you some clothing."

"Who's clothing do you want?" Kagome asked, trying to be helpful.

"Mine." he chorused without looking up from the water.

"Well, we'll just send them all…" Kagome breathed weakly.

"What did you just say?" he asked, frowning at his reflection.

"You couldn't hear me, Inuyasha?" It was strange, but she felt that she was already beginning to be able to differentiate between the two voices.

"No," he huffed. "They're Miroku's stupid ears."

"Well maybe, but it's also my nose and I can smell…"

"Never mind what you can smell!" he growled at himself, "But you're right about that, I still have a strong nose."

"It must be yours on the inside, then…"

"Well how can that be?"

"Well how should I know?"

Taking that as their cue to depart, Kagome and Sango raced back to camp, leaving them to argue amongst himself. When they reached the camp, Shippou was hiding behind Kirara, looking very frightened and concerned.

"Kagome, I'm scared!" he wailed, hopping into her arms.

"Me too, Shippou-chan." she said, hugging the furry little kit to her chest. "But do you think you're brave enough to bring him their clothing?"

"I don't know…" he said, burying his face into her shoulder.

"Shippou-chan, it's still Miroku and Inuyasha." Sango said encouragingly, leaning in to pat the tiny kitsune on the head. "They're just more…concentrated…" she trailed off, shaking her head again. "No, that's not right…I'm so confused…"

Meanwhile, back at the spring, the boys were having a very heated discussion about who owned what.

"I told you, stop touching it!" Inuyasha snarled.

"But-"

"I'm serious bouzu! THAT'S mine!"

"I know it's yours! I wouldn't be in such a state of shock if it was mine! I WISH it was mine. It would be getting a lot more use, for one thing."

"Fucking pervert…"

"Here you go Shippou-chan." Kagome said, plopping him onto Kirara's back. "Now don't be scared. Imagine how they must feel. We have to try to treat them like nothing's any different."

"But everything is different!" Shippou protested. "If Inuyasha can't pick on Miroku, then he's only ever gonna pick on me! And you won't sit him, cause then you'll be sitting Miroku, too! And Miroku's a monk with spiritual powers, what if he gets sick of Inuyasha's ward and removes it?! My poor head will be full of lumps all the time!" Shippou lamented his fate, hugging the top of his head with both arms and rocking back and forth.

"Try to look on the bright side, Shippou-chan. Maybe Miroku will be able to keep Inuyasha from beating on you all the time." Sango said reassuringly.

"Maybe…" Shippou paused, considering things carefully. "Hey Sango, maybe Inuyasha will be able to keep Miroku from touching your ass all the time!"

"Shippou-chan!" Kagome cried, shoving the kit along past Sango, who's eyebrow had already begun to twitch uncontrollably. "I think it's about time you bring the boys their clothing. Just remember, whatever you do, don't tease them!"

"Gah! What, do you think I have a death wish?" Shippou cried as Kirara trotted off, back to the spring.

"No! For the last time, NO!"

"Just once, Inuyasha! Can't we use it just one time? You won't regret it, I swear!"

"No! Sango's a good fighter and I respect her. If I let you do… what you want to do, then I'll never be able to look at her the same way again!" The monk's voice silenced in his head for a moment, as if considering things very carefully, before piping up again.

"Alright. How about Kagome-sama?"

Shippou arrived at the spring just in time to witness the black-haired young man trying his best to drown himself.

"Stop!" he sputtered violently. "I was only kidding!" Between gulps of air, he sniffed out the kitsune.

"Shippou!" he cried, running for the bank as fast as he could in the waist-deep water. "Go get help!"

"Stay out of this brat!" he snarled a second later before he punched himself in the gut. "You should have heard the perverted things this asshole was saying about Kagome!"

"Inuyasha calm down! You'll kill us!" he groaned, doubling over in pain. "Shippou…"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" Shippou screamed, running in the other direction as fast as his little legs could carry him. Kirara watched him go, then laid down on the banks of the spring to watch the festivities.

"Shippou-chan!" Kagome exclaimed as the little kitsune tore through the campsite screaming at the top of his lungs. In a flash, Sango hurled the Hiraikotsu into the ground and Shippou collided with it face-first, rolling backward for a few feet before finally stopping to land on his back.

"Sorry, Shippou-chan." Sango said, picking him up to check for bruises. "I hope you're not hurt. But what was that all about?"

"Sango!" he wailed, waving his arms up and down in the air. "He's crazy! He was screaming and trying to drown himself and it was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my whole life!"

"Drown himself?!" Kagome exclaimed, her hands flying up to her face, "Sango, shouldn't we go stop him?"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Kagome-chan." Sango sighed. "My guess is that Houshi-sama said something perverted again and Inuyasha's just trying to straighten him out as usual."

"Yes, but…wow. That must be something to see…" Kagome sighed, a little wistfully before breaking into nervous laughter.

"Oh dear, Kagome-chan." Sango sighed. "I have a feeling that you'll get to see plenty of that before this thing is over…"

As he struggled to pull himself out of the hot spring, half-drowned and thoroughly exhausted, he noticed Kirara resting on the bank.

"Where were you five minutes ago?" he gasped wearily, his eyelips drooping as he spoke.

"She was right here, moron." he said, jumping easily to his feet. "She came with the runt to drop off our clothes."

"Speaking of which," the monk said, staring at the two very different piles of clothing draped across Kirara's back, "how are we going to work this out?"

"Simple." Inuyasha snorted. "We'll wear my fire rat kimono. It offers more protection."

"Yes. And it's hot and itches like it's made of bed bugs! My robes, however, are light and comfortable-"

"And perfectly useless in a battle!"

"Well one thing's for certain. No one else is going to appreciate it if we don't come to some kind of decision. We're not going to be able to continue to run around like… this." he said, looking down at their naked body. "Though it will certainly turn a few heads…"

"Don't start that again!" Inuyasha warned. "I know we can't go around naked, that's why we're going to wear my fire rat kimono!"

"And why do you get to decide?"

"Heh. Cause I'm stronger, and if you don't do what I say, I'll kick our ass again, that's why!"

"Maybe physically," the monk countered, "but how much do you want to bet that I can figure out a way to lock your aura so deep inside this body that I'll be the only one controlling it?" Inuyasha fell silent for a moment, wondering if the hoshi had power enough to actually do it, or if he was bluffing. After a few minutes consideration, he reluctantly grumbled,

"Alright, bouzu, let's talk."