InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Long Awaited Reunion ❯ Reflections ( Chapter 10 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. This is the eleventh time I've said this. I think I'm starting to repeat myself.

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Key:

"Example" = spoken words

'Example' = thoughts

*Example* = sound effects

~*~*~*~ = scene change

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Chapter 10: Reflections

Inukigo walked aimlessly through the forest, not really caring where she was going at the moment. The promise she had made to Inuyasha about not going to far was in the back of her mind, but she did intend to keep it. She knew that she worried all of them, especially her brother, and she hated to make them feel that way, but she felt as though she needed to get away for a while. She had been reunited with Inuyasha and joined his group just over a day ago, and since then she hadn't had the opportunity to think about everything that had happened in that short amount of time, as well as right before that, without someone crowding her, wondering if she was ok. She really liked having such wonderful friends, but she was unaccustomed to having so many people around her making so much noise, not to mention all the attention that was directed at her. For ten years of her life, Inuyasha was her only companion, the only person who cared for her. Frankly, having four more people and a fire neko worrying about her was making her very nervous.

She had been wandering for about fifteen minutes when she arrived at a small clearing. It was filled with beautiful white flowers, and she breathed deeply, inhaling the sweet, calming scent that they gave off. Spotting a large tree in the centre of the clearing she decided that this would be the perfect place to think and clear her head. She slowly walked towards the tree, picking a flower as she went and bringing it closer to her nose. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the peaceful atmosphere, before leaping up into one of the tree's branches and resting against the trunk. The movement caused pain in her stomach and shoulder, by she ignored it.

As she settled onto the branch she sighed and began rolling the small white flower between her fingers, trying to focus her mind on the events of the past day. Unfortunately, the first thing that came to her mind made her growl quietly and instantly crush the flower in her hand - Naraku. She didn't realize how angry it made her to think of him until she heard and felt tree bark cracking beneath her claws. She began relaxing slightly when she began to think of the things she would do to the conniving coward when she got her hands on him. Oh, yes, that bastard was going to pay for everything he had done, not only what he did to her, but also her brother and friends. She vowed right then and there that she would play at least some part in his death, if she didn't kill him with her own hands that is.

After resolving that particular thought, she forced her mind to move on. She then found herself thinking about when she had accused Inuyasha of betraying her. She now felt unbelievably stupid and laughed at herself for ever thinking that. There was no way that he would intentionally do anything to harm her, and she knew it. 'He must have felt so hurt when I turned on him like that.' She began cursing on herself when she felt hot tears running down her face, though she didn't bother to wipe them away since there was no one around to see. She started to think again about what she had done earlier that day, how she had attacked her friends. Sure, they said that they didn't blame her for it, and she believed them, but there was no way she could let it go as easily as they had.

"I could have very well killed them. How can they…how can I forget about that so easily, and just go on and forget about it?" She had started talking to herself, and knew that she was asking herself questions that she already knew the answers to, but paid no heed to it as tears streamed harder down her face in her silent crying.

She hated crying, and she had done more of it in the last day then she had in her entire life. The only other time she remembered crying was when her mother died. She had only been young then, so she felt that she was justified in crying then, but she had never cried since, no matter how badly the tears wanted to fall. She felt weak when she cried, and feared that Inuyasha would think the same of her, since he had never cried, and she definitely didn't want to seem weak to him. At that she began berating herself. She knew that he would never think that of her for simply crying, and with that thought she willed the tears to stop.

"No, that's right. I think that I would have to do more than cry for Inuyasha to lose his faith in me, he's proven that already."

She began to wipe the tears off of her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt, when a realization struck her and a smile appeared on her face.

"Inuyasha will never lose his faith in me, and neither will the others, even though they have only known me for a very short time. I haven't completely forgiven myself for what has happened, but, I'm not alone. Kagome told me, that they would always be there for me, and now I know that no matter what happens, they won't abandon me."

She leaned back further into the tree and tilted her head up towards the sky. Closing her eyes, she let out a very contented sigh and a smile graced her face. 'I have friends and a brother that will always be here when I need them, and from now on, I'll always be there for them.'

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Back at the clearing near the river, Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou had proceeded to set up camp, deciding that there was no reason to keep moving since the day was pretty well over and this place was as good as any. The sun was just started to set and the sky was a mixture of bright reds and oranges as Kagome and Sango went about roasting fish that Inuyasha and Shippou had caught earlier over the fire.

Speaking of Inuyasha, said hanyou was becoming rather antsy. He sat near the fire with his legs

in their usual position and his crossed arms hidden within the sleeves of his haori. One leg was bouncing up and down, while he threw occasional glances at a particular area of the forest. All the while Kagome was trying to ignore his impatience, she really was, but she couldn't for much longer. When his actions still hadn't stopped five minutes later, she'd had enough.

"Inuyasha, calm down. She'll be back when she's ready."

"I am calm, I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about."

"Oh please, you've been twitching for the past hour and it's starting to get on my nerves."

"I ain't twitching!" he shot back hotly.

"Then why is your leg bouncing?" she asked calmly.

Inuyasha glared at her for a moment, then realized that she was right and promptly grabbed at his knee in an attempt to hold his leg still. Kagome sighed and grabbed two fish from the fire as she got up to go sit next to him. She handed one of them to him then turned to look at the spot that he had been glancing at.

"Why are you so nervous?"

Inuyasha looked at her, then at the fish that he held in his hand.

"I don't know. I guess, I'm still worried about her."

"She promised that she wouldn't run away, and that you could go looking for her if she took too long."

"I know, that's not why I'm worried. She's never broken a promise to me in her life, so I know that she was telling the truth about that."

"But…?"

"I could sense that she's still upset about what happened earlier. I'm worried that she might let it get the best of her."

"She'll be ok Inuyasha."

He glared and gave her a 'how in the hell do you know that' kind of look.

"She went off to think alone without the distraction of us here worrying about her. Kind of like what you do sometimes, ne?"

Inuyasha didn't answer, just began eating his fish before it got cold.

"She's like you in a lot of ways isn't she." Kagome said, more as a statement than a question, in between bites of her own fish.

Inuyasha looked at her with a mouthful of fish, his face saying 'duh!' Kagome just looked at him a giggled.

"I don't just mean because of the way you look. It's obvious that you're alike in that way. I meant that your personalities are similar."

"Oh? How so?" he asked, laying the stick that his fish had been on down on the grass.

"Well, you're both very strong-willed, loyal, independent, a little stubborn, proud, have volatile tempers…"

"Ok, ok! I get it, we have similar personalities. Except I don't have a volatile temper."

"Oh, is that so?"

"YES!"

"Way to go and prove your point Inuyasha."

"Keh!"

Kagome just sighed and put down the stick she was holding, having finished eating her fish as

well.

"The two of you were really close weren't you Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was caught of guard by her question but it didn't take him long to give her an answer.

"Aa. We were really close, especially after our mother died. Then it was just the two of us. We relied on each other for everything."

"It was really hard for the two of you growing up wasn't it?"

"Yeah, beyond hard sometimes. You know that there are very few that accept hanyous. But we were always there for each other and protected each other, so that made it a little easier to deal with."

"You're really happy that you've found her, ne?" Kagome asked with a smile on her face as she looked at Inuyasha.

"Yeah." he replied with a smirk as he turned to look at her.

"I'm glad she's with us now too. I'm happy that we're friends, and I hope it stays that way."

Inuyasha just nodded and glanced once more at the forest. Kagome noticed this. 'He's so worried for Inukigo. I hope nothing happens to her. I don't know what that might do to him.'

They sat there in silence for awhile, which was broken by the scream of "HENTAI!," followed by a loud *CRACK* when Sango's hand met Miroku's face. Inuyasha and Kagome sighed, then Inuyasha got up and started to walk towards the forest.

"Inuyasha? Where are you going?" Kagome asked.

He stopped but did not turn fully to look at her. "I'm going to get Inukigo."

"Do you think that's wise Inuyasha? Maybe you should wait until she's ready to come back on her own." Miroku said as he rubbed his cheek, which now sported a familiar bright red handprint.

"Yeah Inuyasha, she might want to be left alone for a while longer." Sango added.

"She's been gone for hours," Inuyasha said as he turned to look at them. "It's getting dark so I want to go and find her before some other youkai does. I'm not going to force her to come back before she's ready, but I still want to go get her to make sure she's ok."

"That won't be necessary Inuyasha."

Everyone turned towards the voice and saw Inukigo walking out of the forest. They were all relieved to see that she was alright.

"What's with everyone? You all look like you thought I wasn't going to come back. I never knew you all missed me so much." Inukigo said with a smile on her face.

After seeing the happy look on her face, everyone relaxed. They had all been very worried about her. Inukigo walked into the clearing, passed by Inuyasha, who followed her as she walked by, and went to sit down next to Kagome. She sat down slowly, but winched slightly as she put her hand lightly on her stomach. Inuyasha noticed as he came to sit next to her.

"Ooi, daijoubu ka?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. Still wounded though. It'll probably be two or three days before I heal completely."

"You really shouldn't be moving around so much yet. You just got those wounds this morning, and they've only just closed."

"Don't worry so much about it. I know what I can take. It's not like you ever sit and wait for your wounds to heal completely before you start moving around, you still have that wound that I gave you after all, so why do you expect me to?"

"There's a big difference between the wound that you gave me and the wounds that Naraku gave you."

"Like what?!"

"Like, oh I don't know, the fact that you were impaled! The wound you gave me is almost healed already."

"Keh!"

"Ooi!"

Through all of this, the rest of the group was struggling to try to contain their laughter. Seeing this side of Inuyasha was quite humorous. Kagome almost lost it when she heard Inukigo use Inuyasha's famous 'Keh!', and when she saw the look on Inuyasha's face at having it used to dismiss him.

"Alright you two, that's enough." Kagome said in a motherly tone. Both hanyous grumbled a little under their breath, but both stopped arguing.

"That's better. Now, Inukigo, do you want anything to eat? We cooked some fish while you were gone, and I saved some for you."

"Thanks Kagome, I appreciate it and would really like some, but at the moment my stomach isn't up for it."

"Oh, oops. I didn't even think about that."

"It's alright. I'm sorry that you went through the trouble of keeping it for me."

"No problem, it wasn't any trouble. I'm sure that Inuyasha or Shippou will eat it."

"I will! I will!" yelled Shippou from his spot next to Kirara where he had been playing with one

of his toys.

"Ooi, runt." Inuyasha said as he balled up his fist.

"Oh, let him have it Inuyasha. Don't be such a baby." Inukigo said.

"Humph." Inuyasha said, sticking his nose in the air and shoving his arms into the sleeves of his haori.

Inukigo just sighed and shook her head. 'I'm starting to think that he's never gonna grow up.' Inukigo's thoughts were interrupted when she felt a small weight settle in her lap. She looked down to see a wide-eyed Shippou looking up at her. She smiled widely at the young kitsune sitting happily on her lap. 'He's so kawaii!'

"Thanks for letting me have your fish Inukigo."

"No problem Shippou."

Shippou just smiled back up at her, then settled more comfortably into her lap while he ate his fish. He quickly finished eating the fish, then proceeded to curl up into a ball and fall asleep while Inukigo gently stroked his back. Inuyasha watched her with curiosity out of the corner of his eye. 'I didn't know that she liked little kids.'

"Wow, he took a liking to you rather quickly didn't he?" said Sango as she came to join them.

"He never acts like that with anyone except Kagome-sama." Miroku added, not far behind Sango.

"Really? It's weird though. I've never really been around little kids before."

"I would have thought you were used to it from the way you were acting with him." Kagome said.

Inukigo shook her head. "No, I haven't ever been around children. Human kids would run screaming, and the parents of demon children would try to rip me apart if I got close to them. I guess it's instinct or something."

"Well, he still seems to really like you." Kagome said.

Inukigo nodded. "I guess," she then turned to face Inuyasha. "Despite all the fighting you two do, he must really like you Inuyasha."

Everyone just stared at her with their eyes wide and their mouths hanging open.

"Nani?! You can't be serious. That little runt is a pain in the ass. There's no way that he could like me after all the beatings I've given him over the past year."

"Well he does. There's no other way that he could like me this much in just a day unless he was familiar with my scent and liked it. My scent is almost the same as yours, so in a way he's known my scent for an entire year. If he likes my scent then he obviously likes yours."

"Keh, no way. You don't see him cuddling up to me like he's doin' to you right now."

"Inuyasha, of course he's not going to cuddle up to you. You're male and well…you. He wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. He just feels safer and protected with you around, even if you beat him up sometimes."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to argue but quickly shut it again. He couldn't come with anything. What Inukigo said had made sense. The kit actually liked him. He smiled slightly at the realization, then hid it quickly when he remembered that he hadn't had the last word in their conversation.

"Keh, whatever."

Inukigo just smiled. She had seen the look on his face. 'He likes Shippou too, he's just too proud

to admit it.'

The group sat there in silence for a while before Kagome stood up and walked over to her backpack.

"It's getting late. I'm going to bed now." she said as she began to unroll her sleeping bag.

"That's a good idea Kagome-chan. I think I'll go to bed too." Sango said.

"If you like, my lovely Sango, you can use me as a pillow." Miroku piped up.

*CRACK*

"I think I'll pass."

"Hai, hai." Miroku said, now rubbing the fresh, red hand print on his cheek.

While the others were getting ready for bed, Inukigo stood up, cradling Shippou in her arms being very careful not to wake him. She slowly walked over to Kagome who was just climbing into her sleeping bag, and handed Shippou to her.

"I think he would be more comfortable sleeping with you. It might startle him if he wakes up somewhere he's not used to."

"Arigato, good night, Inukigo-chan."

"Good night, Kagome-chan." Inukigo replied. She then walked off to the edge of the forest looking for a tree to sleep in. She had just found one and was about to jump up when she was interrupted by a hushed voice behind her.

"What are you doing? You should be sleeping on the ground."

"Inuyasha, stop treating me like a baby." she said with an annoyed tone in her voice, though she

kept quiet for the sake of her other friends.

"You shouldn't be jumping around with that hole in your stomach. You should just sleep on the ground."

"No way. I haven't slept in a tree in a long time and I miss it."

"But you might hurt yourself."

"Aww…I didn't know you cared so much." she teased.

"Of course I care. You're my sister, baka."

"Well, thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. I'm in good enough condition so that I can jump into a tree."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. I jumped into one while I was gone, and as you can see, I'm perfectly alright."

"Ok, ok. You can sleep in the stupid tree."

"Arigatou." she said as she turned and jumped into the tree. It irritated her wounds slightly, and she clutched lightly at her stomach while she waited for the pain to subside. She was just settling onto the branch when she felt a presence behind her. Looking around the trunk of the tree, she spotted Inuyasha's red haori.

"Inuyasha, why are you in the same tree as me? I told you that I was fine."

"That's not the only reason I'm up here. This is the only tree in the clearing big enough to sit in."

Inukigo just sighed and turned back around with a small smile on her face.

"Good night, brother."

Inuyasha smirked slightly.

"Good night, sister."