InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Learning my way... ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9

Keitaro's eyes opened just as the sun began peeking over the horizon. His neck felt slightly stiff from being held upright all night, but he knew the discomfort would go away within seconds of him stretching out.

Vaguely, he wondered how miko's and monks could ever sleep. He had been kept awake most of the night by little things that kept his senses on high alert. The flicker of a mouse in the grass below was enough to jar him awake from the deepest of sleeps. It unnerved him entirely. Before, his youkai senses had been on standby, constantly scanning, but not alerting him to anything unless it was what his instincts registered as big and mean.

Now that, combined with his ability to sense approaching auras and life forces, no matter what their shape or form, made it nearly impossible for him to sleep for very long. He longed for his bedroom back in the modern era where the only moving life forces in the middle of the night would be Jii-chan going to the bathroom - he was too used to that to even stir.

He knew that he could function well on only an hour or so of sleep because of his youkai blood, but like any normal teenaged boy, he liked sleeping and missing out on it pained him.

From his perch on one of the willow tree's huge braches, Keitaro could smell that no one was awake. Dropping down from the tree, Keitaro went to go dig through his small bag, and pulled out an energy bar, tearing off the wrapper and devouring it in three bites.

He leaned in the door of the hut and peered at those who were inside, under the half of the roof that was still there. Miroku sat near the door, his back braced against one of the walls and his eye closed. In front of him, Masuhiro was thoroughly tangled in his bedroll and beyond him; Mariko was sleeping on her side, cocooned in the small sleeping bag that she carried around. Her dark hair reflected a midnight blue in the sunlight that was visible.

Straightening up, he lightly stepped over to where she was lying and crouched down to study her features. Gently, he brushed her bangs aside with one of his claws, being careful not to graze her skin. Her blue eyes were closed and she looked content, her thin lips were curved upwards in a small smile and her pale skin seemed to glow in the early morning light. She was beautiful.

Seven months… It's been seven months since that day you came to school.

Echoes of her voice resonated in his mind. "See? Not that bad…I think they're kinda cute," It had been then that he had fallen, succumbed to her blue eyes and warm smile without really realizing it. Only later, did he begin to understand how much he loved her, but he knew that she didn't really think of him that way. Even his presence hadn't really stopped other boys from asking her out on dates, nor Mariko agreeing to go with the boy to a movie or out to dinner. He didn't like it one bit, but hell would have to freeze over before he said anything. He didn't have the right.

Standing up once more, he looked around.

Next to Mariko, Natsuko slept, fidgeting and worrying the sheets, her face contorting as nightmares chased each other about in her head. Ichiro was sleeping peacefully next to her, snuggled up in a blanket that had been folded in half, making a psudo-sleeping bag for the small boy. Last was Ryuji was splayed out on his stomach, seeming to experiencing peaceful slumber. Keitaro noted the katana that he kept next to his raggedy futon.

His gaze returned to Miroku, studying the aura that he could see around the monk. Once you got past the dominant violet of his holy powers, there were a whole myriad of colours, flickers of amber, lemon greens, a dark blue-ish colour, dark brown and an odd yellowish colour, not unlike mustard.

Masuhiro's dominant colour was red, with bits of royal blue, some amber (but less than his father), two different shades of green, one a lemon green and the other a darker, more intense shade, and finally, several little flickers of pinks here and there. Mariko's aura was the most colourful of the lot, with several hues of blue and yellow intermingling, with large splashes of amber, jade green, crimson, and, for a second, Keitaro swore he saw a flash of white.

In contrast, Natsuko's aura was dark and almost non-existent, with dark greens, charcoal grays, deep purple and pale yellow scattered haphazardly throughout. Ichiro's aura was comprised mainly of reds, greens and blue, with a hint of the darkness that was so predominant in Natsuko's aura. Ryuji's aura was red, amber, brown and a dark viridian green.

Damn… I have to figure out what all that stuff means...

After about five minutes, Miroku began to stir as the rays of the sun fell on his face. Blearily, he opened his eyes.

"Oh… Good morning Keitaro…" he murmured with a yawn.

"'Morning Miroku," replied Keitaro, heading for the door. He had to go hunt for breakfast, or, more accurately, he had to go fishing for breakfast.

When he returned a half an hour later, soaking wet and with six fish in hand, the only one left sleeping was Ichiro. He handed the cleaned and gutted fish to Mariko as she built up a fire. Keitaro peeled off his T-shirt and held it up next to the fire. He couldn't do much about his jeans, but they would dry, eventually. He'd just have to be uncomfortable for awhile.

Mariko efficiently wrapped the fish in tinfoil along with some rice and pushed them into the coals of the fire, where they would cook in their own juices and become nice and tender. Natsuko watched her work on breakfast with a slightly interested expression, asking questions about the tinfoil and both his and Mariko's clothing.

"Oh, We come from Japan," said Mariko airily, using the English name for their country instead of the Japanese one; Nippon. Keitaro had to fight to keep from sniggering, she always sounded so funny when she did this.

"Where's Japan?" asked Natsuko interestedly.

"Oh, it's this long chain of islands, at the edge of a really big ocean, not too far from here," replied Mariko with an engaging smile, "It's not all that different really, and we get a lot of you people there.

Keitaro bit down on his tongue to keep from laughing.

"Ow! Fuck!" he swore as one of his fangs caught the edge of it and went right through. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth and he spat savagely into the fire.

Both girls looked up at him with question marks in their eyes.

"Um… I accidentally bit my tongue…" he stammered, "Just thinking about all that fish… smells so good... yum…" Mariko got a knowing look in her eye.

"Why don't you go help Ryuji go dismantle the last of the houses?" she suggested, "We'll call you bunch when breakfast is ready,"

"Keh, I'll smell it long before you call us," snorted Keitaro, standing and brushing the dirt off his wet jeans and putting on his mostly dry T-shirt.

"Of course you will Keitaro," replied Mariko benignly, with an innocent seeming smile on her face, "but the rest of us, save Kirara, are nose-blind,"

"I know," called Keitaro over his shoulder as he left the partially roofless hut, "That's why I'll tell them that food's ready when I smell it,"

~

"He doesn't act like a youkai, or even a hanyou," commented Natsuko when Keitaro was out of earshot. Mariko shrugged.

"He's only one quarter youkai," she replied, poking at the fish with a stick, "and he was raised by his human family in our country, so a lot of that rubbed off on him… He's really quiet around most people and before we came here, he didn't really know anything about fighting or using any of his youkai abilities,"

"That's why you aren't scared of him?" asked Natsuko.

"Why would I be scared of him?" Mariko gave the girl a strange look. Natsuko gave her a meaningful duh look. Mariko frowned.

"Well, you're a woman and he's a youkai and he has to be really strong…" Natsuko trailed off at the look of outrage on Mariko's face.

"Keitaro is nothing like that!" she exploded angrily, "just because he has youkai blood doesn't mean he's some uncontrollable monster. In fact, he's more human than some humans I know!" She paused and took a deep breath, before continuing in a less hostile voice, "Seriously Natsuko, not all youkai are like that. I mean, take Keitaro's father, he was a nice guy, bit rough around the edges though, from what I heard and we've met a few youkai who aren't blood thirsty murderers,"

Natsuko was silent, her face twisting and Mariko suddenly backtracked, realizing who she was talking to.

"Though I don't blame you for thinking so Natsuko, I'm sorry…"

Natsuko turned away and an uncomfortable silence filled the hut that hung over the two girls like a dark fog. Mariko busied herself with poking at the fish cooking in their tinfoil tombs. She checked her watch every few minutes and rolled up her sleeping bag, stuffing it in her bag. Eventually, she began drawing pictures in the dirt with the stick. Little smiley faces, spirals and patterns. Anything to distract herself from the goddamned silence.

"AIIYEEEEEE!" Ryuji's terrified scream echoed across the remains of the village.

Both Mariko and Natsuko jumped and they rushed outside to see what was happening and both skidded to a stop at the sight of a large red-pink bubble floating in the air above the young man, cackling evilly. In the distance, Mariko could see Keitaro, Miroku and Masuhiro. Both the hanyou and the Taijiya were running flat out, sword drawn and spear ready respectively. Miroku was ambling towards them with an amused grin on his face.

Mariko wondered if he was on something as she reached for one of the tessen in their holders attached to her belt and flipped it open, completely ready to pop that bubble, should it start moving towards them. Ryuji had his katana drawn and was waving it at the bubble while yelling incoherently.

Wait a minute… It sounds more like that thing is giggling now. Thought Mariko as she began to run towards where Ryuji stood. Keitaro beat her to him, sword raised and just as he before he could begin to slash at it, it popped.

A boy with bright red hair and a fluffy tail fell to the ground, swearing and gaping at Keitaro.

"No WAY no fucking WAY!" screeched the boy, scrabbling away from the stunned hanyou on his ass. He looked no older than Masuhiro was at 16.

"Shippou?!" Keitaro gasped, recognizing the smell of the boy, his mouth falling open in surprise, before stammering "But…how…what the hell?"

"No WAY!" repeated the boy insistently, shaking his head violently and blinking at Keitaro disbelievingly.

It was about then that Masuhiro arrived.

"Hey… You're a kitsune!" he exclaimed in a surprised voice, sliding his spear into it's holder on his back.

"What did you expect baka? A rabbit?" shot back the kitsune impudently.

"Calm, Shippou, Where did you pick up all that language?" Miroku's amused voice floated over to them. Shippou's head snapped towards the approaching Monk so fast that Keitaro heard it crack slightly.

"Miroku?!"

"Yes, Shippou, it's me,"

The kitsune's face took on a somewhat dazed look.

"No way…" he breathed. Mariko crouched down in front of the kitsune boy and pulled him to his feet. Instantly the girl in front of him and her beautiful blue eyes mesmerized him. He didn't pick up anything she said.

"Hello….It's Shippou right? I'm Fujita Mariko, the stunned hanyou on your left is Keitaro, You know Miroku, That's Masuhiro, I'm sure it's been awhile since you last saw him, and those three there are Ryuji, Natsuko and Ichiro….um… hello?" she waved a hand in front of his face. No reaction. The boy was staring at her chest, his jaw hanging open just a little.

Keitaro took matters into his own hands before Mariko could react and thunked the kitsune on the head, leaving a nice round lump. Mariko didn't protest his handling of the situation. She'd have left a bigger mark.

"HEY! WHATDIDJADOTHATFOR?!" growled Shippou indignantly, rubbing his injured head.

"Don't ogle," advised Keitaro, cocking an eyebrow and pulling his back his lip ever so slightly, revealing a fang for a fleeting moment, "Bad things tend to happen to people who ogle."

"I wasn't-!" protested Shippou.

"You were," replied Keitaro pointedly, cutting him off, "Don't."

Shippou muttered several oaths and Keitaro wondered what happened to the sweet little kitsune he had been told about. Shippou watched the hanyou darkly out of the corner of his eye and wondered what had happened to the sweet little baby that he used to know.

Luck had to have him turn out like Inuyasha! Thought Shippou savagely.

"Well Shippou, it's good to see you again!" said Miroku brightly, hoping to break the tension filled silence, "Sango will be delighted to know that you're still alive, just as I am,"

"Yeah," replied Shippou disinterestedly, "It'll be nice to see her again,"

Miroku frowned, but before he could reply, Keitaro jerked and turned, sniffing deeply.

"Mariko! Breakfast!" he yelped, whipping around to face her.

Mariko glanced at her watch and started.

"Oh my!" she gasped and tore off towards the hut, desperate to save their chow from becoming charcoal.

~~~~~

Twenty minutes later, they were packing up.

The fish had been charred, but edible and even Shippou had had some. Ryuji, Natsuko and Ichiro were going to journey back to Kaede's village, with Masuhiro and Kirara as escort, while Keitaro, Miroku, Mariko and Shippou went ahead. Masuhiro promised to catch up whenever he could.

As they walked, Miroku peppered Shippou with questions about where he had been and what he had been up to.

Shippou answered the questions in short; two word replies and soon the monk gave up and left the kitsune to his grumbling. Keitaro didn't miss the interested, heated looks that Shippou kept sending Mariko as she walked next to him as he quizzed her with some mental math problems.

Okay. The guys at school are one thing, but Shippou? Thought Keitaro, shaking his head, Seriously, everything's been screwed around with lately. First Sachi, then Kikyou, then that other OLDER Shippou, then this rogue youkai, and now I've got a younger, surlier version of Shippou after Mariko… God damn it… Keitaro grimaced as he took a sniff in Mariko's direction… she's almost in heat too… That must have something to do with it.

~~~~~

It was very hard to endure Shippou's attempts to get back into Mariko's good graces.

More like `attempt' to be honest… thought Keitaro darkly as he watched Mariko with the flower tucked behind her ear as she negotiated with a vendor about some the price of some foodstuffs.

Shippou had bought it from a vendor as soon as they reached the village and offered it to her. Mariko had smiled and thanked Shippou before tucking it behind her ear, where it had been for the past hour or so.

Both Keitaro and Miroku were surprised at how quickly Shippou turned on the charm, but Miroku didn't know what Keitaro did. Though he appeared to be about sixteen and acted about that maturity level, Shippou had to be about 26 years old and from the smell of it, he was no stranger to women warming his futon at night.

~~~

By the next evening, Keitaro was at the end of his rope.

The brass, angry Shippou disappeared around Mariko and he was unfailingly helpful and complimentary. What made Keitaro twitch was that Mariko ate it up. It had gotten to the point where even Mariko had noticed the tension in Keitaro's shoulders and suggesting he go find an onsen to soak in.

When, for a moment that Shippou was out of earshot, Miroku leaned over and whispered; "If it makes you feel any better Keitaro, I don't like this either, I don't know what happened to him to make him like this…"

"But why!?" exploded Keitaro in a savage whisper, his ears flattening against his skull in irritation, "Why on earth is she treating him like he isn't undressing her with his eyes right now?"

They both silently watched Mariko and Shippou walking up ahead of them, talking and laughing about an anecdote that Shippou had just told about a village headman.

Miroku suddenly understood the true extent of the hanyou's stress and whistled softly. The boy had a better handle on his jealousy than Inuyasha could have ever hoped to have. He knew for a fact that Inuyasha would have snapped by now and tried to kill whoever was moving in on what he considered his turf.

Part of this took Miroku by surprise. A few days ago, he had thought Mariko and Keitaro were close friends, but now, he knew that was not the case. There was something deeper here, something that he recognized and could relate too. He had had about a year's worth of stinging red hand marks on his face to prove it. It had taken that long for Sango to stop thinking of him as an annoyance. He had loved her long before she started loving him.

When they made camp, Shippou disappeared for a time, telling Keitaro not to hunt for dinner, he'd handle it. Keitaro had agreed and the kitsune was off before he realized his mistake.

Fuck… Isn't that one thing that youkai do to impress potential mates? Get dinner for them… At least Mariko's human, she wouldn't recognize it for what it was… would she?

Resisting the temptation to go after Shippou and bring back something bigger, Keitaro dug his homework out of his bag and smiled faintly when Mariko did the same.

"Are you still having problems with that worksheet Baker-sensei gave us?" she asked, coming to sit beside him and leaning over to peer at the sheets of paper held flat on his binder, on his lap.

"Nope, thanks to you, I actually understand that weird thing they do with tenses," He smiled at her and she grinned back.

"Good, now you can help me with this quadratic stuff." She waved several pieces of lined paper in the air, covered in equations, all done in English numbers. Keitaro frowned. Now he'd have problems checking her work.

"Sorry Keitaro," said Mariko, noticing the pained look on his face as he took her homework from her and began to go over it, "It's just easier for me that way,"

"It's alright," replied Keitaro absently, already half-way through the first problem, "I suppose it helps me too," catching sight of the mischievous look on her face he backtracked, "but PLEASE don't do it in English all the time… You need practice doing it in Japanese too,"

Mariko laughed at his pleading expression.

"Okay, Okay, I'll make an effort to do it in Japanese too,"

"Good, because I'm not the only one who need practice with another language," murmured Keitaro with a grin, bending forward and using a mechanical pencil to make corrections.

Shippou returned an hour later with some choice cuts of venison, and by then, Miroku had a fire stoked and burning hot. Keitaro quickly scraped the bark off several branches of a tree with his claws, drove them into the ground on either side of the fire and skewered the meat with a third bark less stick and hung it so that it was suspended over the fire by the other two sticks.

Shippou looked a little disgruntled that Keitaro had come up with a way to efficiently cook the meat faster than he had, but shook it off quickly as he sat down next to Mariko, who was now doing her history homework with one of those `snake' flashlights wrapped around her neck so she could see what she was writing.

"What is that?" asked Shippou, squinting at the writing with a puzzled expression.

"My history assignment, I have to compare the feudal systems of Europe and Japan and write about which one that I felt worked better,"

"Why is the writing so strange? There's some kanji, but the rest of it I can't read,"

"It's called hiragana, it's a simpler writing system that people in our country use along with Kanji," replied Mariko, before she wrote something on the corner of her paper, "See? That's your name in Hiragana… Or roughly what you name would be written like,"

"Ah," said Shippou pensively, studying the characters intently as though he was an archeologist looking over hieroglyphs that were fresh from an Egyptian tomb. Keitaro resisted the temptation to roll his eyes as he did his science homework by the firelight. Across the fire, Miroku sat cross-legged, with his eyes closed. Keitaro could tell that his heartbeat had slowed somewhat. He was meditating.

"Food's ready," remarked Keitaro, awhile later as the smell of fully cooked meat perforated his nostrils. Shippou leaped forward to pluck the venison off the fire and began dividing it up equally among the four of them and making small shish kebabs.

Keitaro noted with a frown that he had been handed the charred bits, but decided not to comment as he bit into it, quickly eating it all.

"Shippou, did you see any onsens while you were hunting?" asked Mariko, looking up from her food, "I really need a bath - I stink,"

No you don't… Thought Keitaro, glancing towards her and inhaling.

"You don't stink," said Shippou with a grin, "but I saw one east of here, I could take you there," Mariko smiled and nodded.

Damn.

"Shippou, can I talk to you for a second?" asked Keitaro coldly, rising to his feet and pushing his way into the bushes, away from the fire. Both Shippou and Mariko shot his retreating back surprised glances.

"Sure Keitaro," replied Shippou, smirking, "Right behind you,"

Keitaro walked until he could no longer smell the smoke from the fire, nor see its light, before turning to face the Kitsune. They stood like that for a minute or two, meeting each other's eyes solidly. Shippou quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms irritably, Keitaro could see his furry tail twitching.

"Well? What is it Keitaro? Is it anything important or should I just leave?"

"It's important alright," he replied coldly, "Stop it Shippou, Mariko isn't going to become one of your futon warmers,"

"What are you going to do about it?" replied Shippou in a rough voice, "She isn't yours."

Keitaro's teeth ground together in irritation.

"Either way, would you just stop it!" he demanded, resisting his inu-side's impulse to grab Shippou by the neck, run him into a tree and scratch him up nicely.

"Why should I? You havn't marked her as your mate, she's fair game to the rest of us," shot back Shippou smugly.

"Marked…?" Keitaro asked, puzzled, but at the same cursing the fact that he had to rely on the Kitsune for information about something he should have already known.

"Yeah, Blood mark - exchange - whatever you call it,"

At Keitaro's blank look, the kitsune snorted and huffed irritably.

"Figures, Inuyasha didn't know that much about it either, but it's basically blood exchange between mates. Either way, Mariko's free until she's marked, and I don't think that'll happen with you guys anytime soon, if it ever does, so I'll have my fun now,"

Seething, Keitaro's fists clenched and unclenched, leaving bloody crescent moons on his palms.

"But, If she's marked…" he said leadingly and Shippou shot him a dirty look.

"No one but her mate can touch her pretty much… Something about the mark is an instinctive deterrent, beyond that, I don't know all that much, like how well it works on humans," he smirked, flashing a bit of fang just as Keitaro had done and strode away, back to where they made camp.

Keitaro slumped back against a tree, struggling to reign in his emotions. He desperately wanted to rend Shippou limb from limb, but he knew that wasn't an option, even if his ethics hadn't been so against it. Rubbing his eyes, he made a resolution to go ask the older Shippou for advice, he seemed to be a lot nicer and if he remembered correctly, he had smelled only one woman on him.

With a sigh, he walked back to camp, only discover with irritation that only Miroku was still there. Shippou had taken Mariko to the hot spring.

Noticing the expression on the hanyou's face as he sat down, Miroku gave him a sympathetic look.

"If he tries anything, I'm going to hurt him, maybe remove that tail of his," vowed Keitaro with a snarl.

"I don't think he will," remarked Miroku pensively, "Shippou does have ethics, even if you can't see them,"

"Oh, so he waits a week instead of a day before he screws someone?" shot back Keitaro caustically, crossing his arms and scowling. Miroku had to suppress a grin at how much the boy resembled Inuyasha with the way he was acting.

"No," replied Miroku, "You say you can see auras now?"

Keitaro nodded, a solemn expression on his face.

"Which auras do you see?" asked the monk.

"What do you mean which auras?"

"There are roughly three, The aura that someone has because they either have spiritual powers or they are of youkai blood, I know you can see this one, then there is a life-force aura, but it's not an actual aura per say, more of a way of judging how much life something or someone has-"

"It's the heat sensor one," remarked Keitaro, recognizing what the monk was talking about.

"Heat sensor?" asked Miroku in a puzzled voice.

"Well, people and demons are like reddish-orange colour, unless they're sick or dying, because then they could be like yellow or green… right? And plants and stuff can be yellow or green…. Something that's near death is like blue and when it dies, it turns black… right?"

Miroku nodded.

"Yes, that's it," he said, "Most youkai see that anyways,"

"I didn't," answered Keitaro, shifting uncomfortably, "and even now, I can't see it unless it's dark… So what is the third aura exactly?"

"Actually, the third aura is the actual aura… The two others aren't really auras, but they are called that for the lack of a better thing to identify them by,"

"I see," replied Keitaro, raising an eyebrow, "It's the one I see around your head and body right?"

"Yes,"

"Well, what about it?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

~~~

Mariko grinned when she saw the hot spring. It was a large pool, with boulders scattered about and it looked reasonably shallow.

Quickly stripping off her weapons and clothes, she slid in and sank below the surface, before coming up again to look around. She had left Shippou in a clearing a ways away with the threat that she would cut off his tail if he tried to spy on her.

Humming softly to herself, she reached for her soap and began to lather up, scrubbing her arms and neck, when suddenly she heard a splash behind her.

"Who the hell are you?" demanded a woman's cold voice.

Mariko gasped and turned around just as a slim, buxom woman with long black hair appeared from behind one of the boulders. The woman's red eyes were narrowed into slits and her mouth was pulled into an angry snarl.

"Answer me!" She flicked her hand and Mariko's eyes widened as she saw a large crackle of electricity leap from the woman's hand to the water.

Oh… Shit…

Author's note: For the auras, I used these two websites for references…. I don't know if they're `right' but I took interpretations and mixed them up a little. http://www.wingsofspirit.co.uk/aura3.html

http://www.paralumun.com/auracolour.htm

And to my reviewers:

Fanfiction.net:

Whimsy007: I hope this chapter cleared up a question or two of yours ;)

Mediaminer.org (This site is being irritating, because it says I have 12 reviews, but only shows 9 or 11 of them, depending on when I log in…so sorry if I missed someone)

Kyonarai

Pagan_sedjou

Aff.net

*Broken_hope*

Tom : What on earth does Semper fidelus mean? Just curious….