InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Life and Consequences ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Blanket Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters listed below. They all are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.



Chapter 5

Inuyasha and Kagome made it back to the road that they had left earlier and found a shade tree nearby to wait for the others to catch up.  They even had a fire started and water heating up for ramen.  Kagome had a school book out and Inuyasha was sitting against the tree with his legs stretched out in front of him and his hands resting behind his head.  He looked asleep, but Kagome knew better.  This was one of his ‘I’m-on-sneaky-lookout-duty’ poses.  Even if she had never seen him use this particular ruse before, she could sense what she supposed was his emotions again, and they were anything but restful.  She looked around and couldn’t see anyone else around, but then, she was only human.

“Inuyasha?” she asked, out of the blue.

“What, wench?” he grumped, but there wasn’t any hostility there.

“Is it safe to talk?”  Inuyasha’s ears swiveled and his nostrils flared a couple times in response.

“Should be.  Just keep your voice down,” he replied.  There was only one secret they were keeping that she would ask for privacy for.  He didn’t detect anyone in the area, but if she got too loud, he might not hear someone approach.  And if they came from upwind of him, his hearing would be the only thing to warn them.

“How’s this?” she asked in a voice just above a whisper.  He just nodded to her.  She took a deep breath and continued, “When we came through the well this morning, I told Sango I had some news.  Since we’ve decided not to tell them, I still need to tell her something.  I’m thinking, maybe just tell her that we kissed?  Even if we never went further than that, it would be something I’d be jumping up and down to tell her.  I can’t think of any other ‘news’ I would just need to share.”

Inuyasha was silent for a moment, then sighed.  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Kagome nodded, “I’ll think up the details then tell you.  Try not to find us a hot spring until then, k?”  Inuyasha’s eyes popped open and looked at Kagome at that statement.  Kagome, oh-my-Kami-I-need-a-bath-Kagome, actually asked him to delay finding a hot spring?  Kagome saw his reaction and laughed.

“Just for you,” she continued while still giggling since she had a feeling she knew what was running through his mind.  The tiny, distant feeling of shock helped too.  

“Hey, another thing,” she started after she was finished giggling, “I think I’m picking up on your emotions.  Is that supposed to happen?”

“What do you mean?” he asked guardedly.  Kagome stopped and tried to think about how to put the feeling into words.

“Ok, let’s say I’m sitting on a fence and everything is right with the world.  The sun is shining; I’m talking and laughing with someone while I’m balanced on top of the fence.  I’m safe and there’s no danger, but in the very, very back of my mind I’m worried that I’ll fall, or the fence will break under me, or a whole list of what-if’s.  I’m happy and content, but way back in my mind there is a sliver of worry.  That’s what I keep feeling.  Something in the very back keeps shifting and I’m picking up on emotions that I’m just not having at that moment.  I think that’s the only reason I’m not just assuming they’re mine.”  She stopped there, not wanting to mention the Miroku-incident.  He still hadn’t told her what that was about.  Maybe she could get the other side from Sango later and be able to piece together what went through her hanyou’s mind.

“Keh,” he replied.  Mostly just to let her know he heard as he processed what she said.  Was a mating bond able to do that?  He just didn’t know.  He never asked Myoga because he never figured he’d have a mate.  He already told her what he knew, and that was just some stuff he picked up over the years.

“I dunno, Kagome.  I haven’t noticed anything emotion-related, but then I don’t have emotions like humans do.  Next time we see that fucking flea, he should be able to give us some answers.”

“Nothing emotion-related?  Have you noticed something else?” Kagome asked curiously.

“Well…even without my senses, I can tell exactly where you are.  It’s like there’s an invisible line pointing right to you,” he confessed.

“Huh.  I hadn’t noticed that one…  Think there’ll be anything else?”  Kagome asked.  Inuyasha just shrugged and they both fell quiet.  A moment later and one of his ears twitched.

“Oi, we got company,” he announced, but didn’t get up and draw his sword.  Kagome supposed that meant that their group was coming close to them, and it was time to act like their relationship hadn’t had a momentous leap forward.

Kagome went ahead and poured the hot water into the ramen cups to let it cook the dried noodles.  A minute or so later, the four friends they left behind walked into their little lunch area and sat down.

Sango picked up a cup of noodles and asked, “Everything ok, you two?” while she got situated.  Miroku started to sit next to her, but she shot him a glare and he chose to sit just a little further away with his own cup of ramen.

Kagome was handing Inuyasha the two cups she prepared for him and he just grunted in answer to Sango’s question as he accepted the ramen.  Kagome just shook her head and answered for the both of them.

“We’re fine, Sango.  We just wanted to scout ahead a little,” she said, attempting to brush the question aside as she grabbed her own ramen.  When she sat down, Shippo sat next to her with his own cup.  She smiled down at him and joined in with the friendly conversation everyone was engaged in.  Well, everyone except Inuyasha.  He was eating, but seemed to be ignoring everyone.  If he was asked a direct question, all they got out of him was a “Feh.”

After a few minutes, Kagome realized that Shippo wasn’t eating anymore.  She glanced down and saw that his cup was still half-full, but it seemed to be forgotten in his hands.  Shippo had a small frown of concentration on his face and his nose was twitching while facing her.  It looked like he finally picked up her changed scent and was trying to identify it.  She threw a glance at Inuyasha to see that he was watching the two of them.  He nodded slightly and she gave a small smile in response.  Here goes…

“Hey Shippo, I think I saw some plants a little way off the road that Kaede said was good for cleaning wounds.  Why don’t you come with me and we can collect some?”

“Ok, Kagome!” Shippo exclaimed, happy to help out.  He jumped up, ready to follow.

“I can go with you,” Sango offered, and started to stand.

“No, no, that’s ok!” Kagome said hurriedly.  At the confused look Sango gave her, she tried to come up with a reason for Sango to let them go off alone.  Ugh, she sure was having to come up with a lot of stories for being an honest person…  “Umm, Inuyasha mentioned something about trying to cover a lot of distance after lunch.  I’ve been resting a while already, so you two go ahead and rest up!  We’ll be right back, then we can head out.  Come on, Shippo,” she said as she grabbed the kit up and walked quickly away from their camp.

Sango and Miroku watched curiously as she walked away.  “That was odd…” Sango commented quietly.  Miroku nodded in agreement, then turned his attention to the quiet hanyou.

“So, Inuyasha, is there a goal in mind for us to have to cover a lot of distance this afternoon?” Miroku asked.

“Keh.  The more distance we cover, the more likely we’ll find a jewel shard,” he replied, falling back on a standard answer.  “Oi, you two get this cleaned up and ready to move.  I’m going to go hurry the wench along.  Probably wasting time picking fucking flowers…” he grumbled, while in reality he wanted to meet with Kagome so they could tell Shippo their news together.  Before waiting for an answer, he jumped off after his mate.

Miroku and Sango watched him leave then looked at each other.  “Does it feel like we’re missing out on something to you too?” Sango asked.  Miroku nodded again and Kirara mewed in answer from her spot on Sango’s shoulder.  

“Hopefully the next time you lovely ladies get a chance to bathe together Lady Kagome will shed some light on what is going on.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Sango agreed.  “Come on, houshi; let’s get everything packed up, so Inuyasha doesn’t get in one of his moods again.”  Miroku nodded and stood up to help clean their temporary camp.  Neither human noticed that Kirara was staring off in the direction the other half of the group wondered off to.  And even if they did, they wouldn’t have noticed the look of satisfied approval on her feline features.

********

Kagome carried Shippo away from the others until she couldn’t hear them anymore then found a comfortable place to sit ignoring the plants that surrounded the area.  She set Shippo down and took a seat.  Shippo looked confused that they weren’t gathering any leaves and asked about it.

“I guess I was mistaken, Shippo.   These don’t look like the plants Kaede showed me after all,” Kagome answered distractedly.  Was Inuyasha coming, or did he want her to tell Shippo by herself?

“Then shouldn’t we head back, Kagome?  Sounds like dummy Inuyasha is coming to get us anyway,” Shippo replied.  Well, that answered that question, but first things first…

“Shippo!” she snapped.  “You need to stop calling Inuyasha names.  What have I told you about respecting your elders?”

“Elders, smelders,” Inuyasha replied before Shippo could as he landed in front of the two, “Who gives a rat’s ass about elders?  You need to respect the pack leader.”

Shippo gave him a sidelong glance, and with the confidence that Kagome would protect him, gave another little dig, “What?  I respect Kagome!”  

Before anyone could blink, Inuyasha was on top of Shippo, growling with his hand around his neck and Shippo pressed to the ground.  Shippo blinked, and then started squirming, attempting to break his hold.  Kagome opened her mouth to say something, but Inuyasha interrupted before any words came out.

“Not now, Bitch,” he growled out.  But he did look up at her and give her a wink to let her know he had everything under control.  She closed her mouth and trusted him to handle things like she promised him she would.  It was just difficult seeing her baby treated like this.

Shippo was surprised on several different levels.  Inuyasha had never asserted his authority like this for one, and Kagome hadn’t said anything about it for another.  Not even when Inuyasha had called her a ‘bitch!’  That used to be crater territory.  He kept struggling though, hoping that Kagome would eventually come to his rescue.

Inuyasha pressed his hand a bit more tightly against Shippo’s neck.  He didn’t want to hurt the runt, but he needed to submit.  This ‘conversation’ had been long overdue, but with the constant threat of being osuwari’ed along with suppressing his canine-side, it just hadn’t happened.  And the runt was getting out of control because of it.

After the longest five minutes of Kagome’s life, Shippo finally submitted to Inuyasha and went limp.  She was honestly surprised she didn’t have blood in her mouth from the many times she had to bite her tongue.

Inuyasha lightened the pressure on the kit’s neck and growled, “Say it!”

Shippo met his eyes, then quickly looked away.  He swallowed and replied quietly, “You’re the Alpha, Inuyasha.”  Once he said the words, Inuyasha removed his hand and moved back to sit on his haunches.  Shippo slowly got up off the ground and looked around.  He saw Inuyasha give Kagome a nod, then she turned towards him.

“Hey Shippo,” she started, like there hadn’t been a canine dominance display right in front of her a moment ago, “we wanted to talk to you privately.”

“Yeah, I can see why…” he grumbled while rubbing his neck.  It didn’t hurt, but it was uncomfortable.

“Feh, that wasn’t the reason.  That was for being a smart-ass,” Inuyasha grumped.  Kagome shot him a glare, but didn’t say anything.

“Anyway!” Kagome brought the attention back on herself, “We’re going to tell you something, but you have to keep it quiet.  We’re not ready for Sango and Miroku to know, and our enemies absolutely can’t find out about it.  Think you can keep the secret with us?” she asked slyly.  She knew she could get cooperation by adding a little bit of intrigue.  Her kit was a sucker for it.  Probably had to do with his trickster nature…

“Yeah, Kagome!  You can count on me!” Shippo enthused, excited by the prospect of sharing a secret with Kagome.

“Ok, Shippo.  Here goes.  Inuyasha and I are mates now!” Kagome told him.  Shippo looked at her with wide eyes, then looked at Inuyasha.  Inuyasha gave him a half-smile and pushed up one of his sleeves to show Shippo his mating mark.  When he saw that, Inuyasha was surprised to see a huge smile light up the kit’s face.

“It’s about time!” Shippo exclaimed.  “I was beginning to think you two would never get mated!”  He jumped up on Kagome and gave her a hug, then leapt to Inuyasha to do the same.  He made sure he jumped down quickly enough that he didn’t get bopped on the head in case Inuyasha was still in a mood.  But he wanted to hug the both of them, so he did.

Inuyasha wouldn’t have hit him, but that was mostly because he was stunned by the runt’s reaction.  He was honestly expecting a full-blown tantrum that would boil down to him getting more of Kagome’s attention.  He wasn’t expecting excitement, a slight reprimand, and a hug of all things.

“Are you gonna have kits?  Can I be their big brother?!  I’ll be a good brother, you watch!  You’re gonna stay here with us, right, Kagome?”  Shippo fired off questions while jumping up and down in his excitement.  Kagome just laughed at his antics.

“Yes, Shippo.  We don’t know what’ll happen when the jewel gets purified, but we’ll try our best to stay here.  And we’ll talk about kids after we defeat Naraku, ok?  And I’m sure you’ll be the best big brother in the world!”

They let Shippo burn off some of his excited energy, then headed back to the others.  The camp was packed up, so they headed out.  Sango and Miroku didn’t say anything about the lack of herbs the group brought back, but they did share a glance with each other.

Not too long after they started walking again, Kagome gasped and brought a hand to her chest.  Everyone turned to look at her.

“I think I sense a jewel shard.  That way,” she said as she pointed in a direction off the road they were traveling.  Without discussing anything, the group detoured in the direction she pointed.  Kagome also made her way to the front of their group to walk alongside Inuyasha to help guide him.

As they headed in that direction, Inuyasha began to notice something.  He knew that he could tell where Kagome was at all times, but now it seemed like that same sensation was coming from two directions.  The strong one from Kagome next to him, of course, but a fainter sensation was coming from the direction they were heading.  It felt like Kagome was in two places at once.  Every time Kagome made an adjustment to their route, it was in the direction he felt the sensation from.  Out of curiosity, Inuyasha deliberately headed in a direction that the pull wasn’t coming from.  Within a minute, Kagome corrected his course back towards the pull.

Inuyasha frowned and looked down at Kagome walking beside him.  She must have sensed him looking at her, because she looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, asking him ‘What?’ without words.  He turned an ear to face behind him and determined that everyone else was far enough back and wrapped up in their own conversation.  

He leaned down and whispered, “Let me lead.  I want to test something.  If I get too far off, poke me and you can lead again.”  Kagome gave him a confused look, but nodded and stopped giving directions.

After a half-hour and avoiding several obstacles, Inuyasha glanced at Kagome to see if he was still heading in the right direction.  She caught his eye and gave a slow nod.  

He leaned down to whisper again, “Oi, wait awhile then start whining about needing a break.  We’ll argue with a possible osuwari, but we’ll stop.  We need to talk.”  She smiled up at him and gently hit his shoulder like he had just said something that amused her, gave him a wink and fell back to talk to the others.

“Oh, Kagome!  Thank goodness you came back here!” Inuyasha heard Sango exclaim.  “The houshi has been trying to slip into those kind of stories again.”  Kagome just laughed, then began talking animatedly with the rest of the group.  Every now and then, she slipped in a comment about her shoes, laying the groundwork for their little show.  Sneaky wench…

They entered a clearing and Kagome started, “Hey, Inuyasha, why don’t we rest here for a minute?”

“Keh, no way, wench.  We can’t let that jewel shard get away.”

“Oh, it’s not moving.  And even if it was we’d still catch up to it,” she waved off dismissively.

“You just rested!  It hasn’t been all that long since lunch!  Surely you weak humans can make it a little further than this?!” Inuyasha let some frustration leak into his voice.

“We’ve been walking forever, and you can’t honestly call this a road!” Kagome started raising her voice.  She had to make it convincing after all.  Sure enough, she heard a couple frustrated sighs behind her and knew they were buying it.  “Some of us are starting to get blisters, you know!”

“Keh!  I’ll carry you if that’s the problem, wench.”

“The problem is that we’re tired and need a break!” Kagome took her normal ‘and-I-mean-it!’ stance with feet spread, fists on her hips, and leaning forward slightly.

“We’re not stopping here, wench!  You can forget it!” Inuyasha nearly yelled at her.

“Yes.  We.  Are!  I’m taking a break, and you can’t do anything about it!  Hmmph!”  With that, Kagome plopped down on the ground right where she was and crossed her arms and lifted her nose in the air.  Inuyasha started stomping over to her like he intended to pick her up and toss her over his shoulder.  When he started stomping, Kagome shot him a quick glare and snapped, “Osuwari!”

“Gah!” Inuyasha exclaimed as the rosary pulled him to the ground.  He started grumbling and cursing to keep up the act.  He was the only one that saw the apologetic look in Kagome’s eyes when she said the word, but he wanted her to activate it for realisms sake.  Once the spell let him up, he sat up and crossed his arms and looked disgruntled.

“Fine!  But don’t get comfortable!  We’re moving soon!”  Then he stood up and jumped up in a tree to ‘sulk.’  Now that the show was over, the other humans also sat down to take a break.  Kagome took some water bottles out of her backpack and passed them around.  Shippo was giving her a strange look, as he was trying to figure out what the fighting was about.  When Kagome was sure that neither Sango nor Miroku were looking, she gave the kit a wink.  His eyes widened in realization and he just smiled at her before going off to play with Kirara.

After a few moments, Kagome mentioned she had to use the ‘little girl’s bush’ while standing up.  She shot Miroku a warning glare.  Sango noticed and laughed.

“Don’t worry, Kagome.  I’ll keep him here,” she reassured her friend.  Kagome nodded and left the clearing on the opposite side of where they were sitting.  

She kept walking until Inuyasha dropped down beside her.  She didn’t even jump, just turned to face him.  Before he could say anything though, she threw her arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss.  He replied by putting his arms around her and pulling her closer.  Eventually they pulled away for air and rested their foreheads against each other while panting to catch their breath.
“Oh, Kami, Inuyasha,” Kagome said quietly, but forcefully.  She wasn’t sure how far from the others they really were.  “We can’t do that too often.  My blood starts boiling and then I just want you.”

“Keh!  That’s not a convincing reason to stop,” he smirked and kissed her again.  They pulled away again, but stayed wrapped in each other’s arms.

“What’s up?” Kagome asked him.  “And why’d you make me say ‘it?’  I’m sorry, by the way.”

“Feh, you know how stubborn we are.  That used to be the only way I’d compromise, and we need to keep up appearances for a while.”

“How stubborn we are?” Kagome asked while raising an eyebrow.

“Keh, don’t give me that.  We wouldn’t butt heads near as much if either of us was less stubborn.”  Kagome smiled, but didn’t say anything.  “Here, I want to try something.  Close your eyes,” he commanded.  Kagome looked at him slightly suspiciously, but closed her eyes.  He stepped away from her, but continued holding one of her hands.  He rotated Kagome slightly to the right and raised her hand to point in the direction he was feeling that odd sensation from.

“That way?” he asked.  Kagome gasped and opened her eyes to look at him.

“You can sense them too?” she asked in disbelief.  

“I…I don’t know.  I think so…” he trailed off.

“Well, you wanna test it?” she asked as she pulled off the bottle ‘necklace’ where she kept there shards not waiting for an answer.  “Close your eyes and hold your nose,” she commanded.  Inuyasha was curious if he was really sensing the shards or not, so decided to play her little game and closed his eyes and pinched his nose.

As soon as he held his nose, his ears started moving nearly uncontrollably.  Inuyasha hoped she hurried with whatever she was up to because he felt very vulnerable without his nose.  He was able to hear where she was and kept an ear on her while she rustled around the area.  His nerves finally got to him and he let go of his nose.  Kagome could just deal.

Kagome finished her little plan.  She had walked to several areas and rustled the bushes or the leaves on the ground, and left the bottle of jewel shards at one of the locations.  She turned and saw that he wasn’t holding his nose as she asked, but she shrugged.  With her touching the different possible locations, her scent shouldn’t be a deciding factor in finding them.  She walked up until she was next to him.

“Ok, Inuyasha, you can open your eyes.  Can you find them?”  Inuyasha opened his eyes and was surprised that the pull he thought was from their mating bond was no longer coming from Kagome, but from in front of him.  He merely pointed in the direction he felt the pull from, then raised an eyebrow at her.  She nodded with a smile.  “Can you tell how far away they are?  Can you see them, or just sense them?”

“No, I can’t see them right now.  Can you?” he asked her.  She nodded.  “Naw,” he continued, “I can tell that they’re in that direction and kinda close, but not much more than that.”

“Get a little closer and see if you can find them.  I hid them from sight so they shouldn’t give themselves away,” Kagome prompted.  He grunted, but started in that direction.  Once he got within a couple feet, he stopped.

“I can tell that they’re here,” he said while scanning the area, “just not where…”

“Ok, can you tell how many there are?” she asked.

“Well, that doesn’t count.  I know how many we have.”

“Fine,” Kagome said and went to retrieve the bottle.  Once she had it, she opened it and took out a few without showing Inuyasha.  She recapped the bottle then tossed it to the side.  “Ok, how many are in my hand, and how many are in the bottle?”  Inuyasha looked back and forth a couple times, then shrugged.

“I think that there are more in your hand than in the bottle, but I can’t put a number to it,” he finally answered.

“That’s right.  You might be able to tell later after you get some practice in.  Looks like your shard detector still has a job!” Kagome teased as she retrieved the shard bottle.  Inuyasha walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist while pulling her to him.  

He nuzzled the side of her neck and murmured, “She was never in danger of losing it.”  He started pleasuring the side of her neck and was getting lost in her scent.

“Inuyasha,” Kagome moaned out, “I need to get back.  I was only supposed to be relieving myself, remember…”

“Fuck,” Inuyasha moaned in reply, but did slowly let her go.

She smirked up at him, “As soon as we can find time and privacy.”