InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Long Awaited Reunion ❯ A Sword by Any Other Name ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11: A Sword by Any Other Name

Inukigo's ears began twitching as she woke to the sound of birds chirping in the trees around her. She opened her eyes lazily to protect them from the sun and yawned widely. She began to stretch, but stopped as a slight pain shot through her stomach and shoulder. 'Stupid wounds.' she cursed inwardly. 'These are gonna be a pain in the ass for the next few days.'

While thinking about her wounds, Inukigo remembered that her brother had been sharing the tree with her. She turned to look around the trunk of the tree, and sure enough, there was Inuyasha's bright red haori. 'So, he's still there.' She stilled for a moment, twitching her ears. 'From the sound of his breathing, he's still asleep. Hmm…I could have a bit of fun with this.' she thought as a sly smile spread across her face. 'I wonder if I can still sneak up on him.' Inukigo slowly stood up on the branch that she had been sitting on careful not to make a sound. A quick check verified that Inuyasha had not heard her move and was still fast asleep. She smiled again, then looked up to find a suitable branch that she could move to. When she spotted one she jumped up to it quickly, being careful to remain silent. She then quietly made her way around the tree, until she was standing on a branch directly above Inuyasha. Inukigo then carefully lowered herself onto the branch so that she had her legs wrapped around the branch and was facing the tree. She then tipped to the side, and let herself hang upside-down from the branch, which resulted in her face being directly in front of Inuyasha's. She held her breath so he wouldn't hear her or feel it on his face. Then, she just waited, and stared.

Inuyasha suddenly felt as though someone was watching him. Being a light sleeper, he heard everything around him, so the feeling was slightly confusing. 'I didn't hear anyone get up, and there aren't any demons nearby, so who's staring at me?' Inuyasha was starting to get curious, so he started to reach out with his sense of smell and his hearing.

Inukigo noticed Inuyasha's nose and ears twitching. 'So, he's waking up. He must feel my stare. Took him long enough to notice.'

Inuyasha confirmed that no one was awake and that there was no danger around, yet there was still the unnerving feeling of being watched. He decided to get up so he could determine what was giving him that weird feeling. He slowly started to open his eyes, keeping them out of the sun until they adjusted to the light. His vision was blurry, and as he started to blink to clear them, he could swear that he saw two eyes looking back at him.

Inukigo couldn't stop the grin from coming across her face as she saw Inuyasha's eyes flutter open. 'Finally, I was starting to think I would be waiting here all day. Now, before he has a chance to focus on me…' Inukigo slowly tilted her head so that her mouth was directly in line with one of his ears. She then took a deep breath, which Inuyasha noticed a little to late, and,

"GOOD MORNING ONII-CHAN!!!!!"

"HUH?! WHA…" Inuyasha's eyes shot open from surprise, and unfortunately Inukigo's yell caused him to lose his balance. With arms and legs flailing, Inuyasha fell from the tree and landed headfirst with a thud.

"Kuso…" Inuyasha swore as he rolled to sit up, rubbing his head. A soft giggle directed his attention back up to the tree, where his sister still hung from the tree branch. He shot an annoyed glare at her, to which she just shrugged and folded her arms behind her head. She looked down at him, then let go of the branch she was hanging from. As she fell headfirst, she reached out with one hand and caught herself on the branch that Inuyasha had been sleeping on. She swung down from the branch and landed on her feet in a crouch in front of him.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked in a playful voice.

"I was, until someone rudely woke me up." he replied in a rather annoyed voice.

"Yes, we were all sleeping well until that happened too." came a voice from a few feet away.

Inuyasha and Inukigo looked to see everyone one else in the camp awake, all with rather perturbed looks on their faces. Inukigo stood up straight and rubbed the back of her neck as she gave a nervous laugh.

"Eh, he…gomen, I didn't mean to wake everyone up."

"Baka, what did you think would happen if you yelled like that?" Inuyasha said as he stood up beside his sister.

"Well EXCUSE me for not thinking it through first." Inukigo shot back. She then folded her arms in front of her and pouted. "I just wanted to wake you up the way that I used to."

A look of understanding crossed Inuyasha's face before he broke out into a smile.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about your wakeup calls."

"You mean that she does that on a regular basis?" asked Kagome.

"And you let her get away with it?" asked Shippou.

"Feh, hardly. I always get her back for it. Which reminds me…" Inuyasha said as he turned to face Inukigo, "Don't think that I'm gonna forget that one. I'll pay you back for it when your wounds heal."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Inuyasha." Inukigo said, smirking.

"Alright," said Kagome, cutting into the discussion. "Seeing as we're all awake, who wants breakfast?"

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"Ooi runt! Get back here with that!!" Inuyasha yelled as he chased Shippou around the campgrounds.

"No way! You had enough! I want the extra one!!" Shippou yelled back.

At the moment, both youkai were running circles around their companions fighting over…a fish. One fish. The rest of the group sighed in exasperation as they watched the two quarrel. Inukigo was sitting with her own fish in her hand, and her eyebrow twitching. As Inuyasha and Shippou came running by her, she reached out and grabbed Inuyasha's hakama, effectively dragging him to the ground.

"Ooi! Why the hell did you do that?!"

"I did it because you were getting on my nerves. Let Shippou have that stupid fish. Here, you can have mine." she said as she thrust the fish at him.

"I'm not taking your food from you. You haven't eaten anything since early yesterday."

"Don't argue with me and just take it. I can't eat it anyways."

"But you told Kagome you could eat one when she asked you."

"Well, I've discovered that my stomach isn't ready to handle food yet. It's making me feel sick just thinking about eating it. Gomen, Kagome. It's not because of your cooking."

"That's ok."

"Anyways, just take the fish Inuyasha. You might as well, since you won't be getting the other one from Shippou now."

Inuyasha turned to see Shippou sitting with a smug look on his face as he popped the last of the fish into his mouth.

"You're being sneaky. You were just stalling for him weren't you?"

"Well, yeah. That and I was getting sick of watching you chase him around. Now, do you want this, or will Shippou get this one too?" Inukigo said with a smirk as she waved the fish in front of Inuyasha's face.

"Alright." he said as he took the fish from her. "You're sure that you don't want it?"

"Hai, I'm sure. Have I ever been one to give you food if I really wanted it?"

"No, but it would be better if you ate something."

"Inuyasha, you know that I can go for days without food if I have to. Besides, I already told you that my stomach is not healed enough to handle food yet. I thought that it was, but it's not. Don't worry about it so much." she said as she smiled at him. 'I'm really glad that he worries for me, but it's really starting to get on my nerves!'

"Ok, ok." Inuyasha said as he began to eat the fish.

"Finally. I thought that you were never going to stop arguing over that stupid fish."

"Shut the fuck up, bouzu."

"Such language, Inuyasha, and in the presence of three lovely ladies," Miroku said as he crept his way over to the girls, aiming to sit between Sango and Inukigo. They saw him coming, and Inukigo caught him before Sango had the chance to get to him first.

"Come any closer to me bouzu, and I swear that you won't be conscious for a fuckin' week."

Miroku, along with every other member of the group caught the look in her eye, and knew that she was dead serious with her threat. He held up his hands in a defensive gesture and stopped where he was. Inukigo glared at him for a few seconds, then sighed and made to lie down on the ground on her back, but something pressing into her side made the action uncomfortable. Reaching to her right side, she felt the hilt of the sword that Inuyasha had attached to her hip the day before. She sat up straight again, with her hand still on the hilt of the sword. She had forgotten all about it after Inuyasha had strapped it to her waist and told her its purpose. As she turned more of her attention to the sword she realized something - she didn't know what the sword was called.

"Ne, Inuyasha…"

Inuyasha turned to look at her while still eating his fish. He gave a small grunt to show he was listening and Inukigo continued.

"Your sword is called Tessaiga, right?" He gave a small nod to say yes. "Well, do you have any idea what my sword is called?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment as he swallowed a mouthful of fish, then shook his head no.

"Nope, I don't know what that sword is called. I didn't even know it existed until you separated it from Tessaiga."

Inukigo turned her attention back to the sword, then sighed and dropped her hand to the ground.

"Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter that much. It won't get much use in battles anyway."

"Huh? Why not?" Kagome asked as she looked at Inukigo curiously. Inukigo opened her mouth to answer, but Inuyasha beat her to it.

"She won't use it 'cause she sucks at wielding a sword."

At that statement Inukigo was fuming.

"I do NOT suck at wielding a sword."

"Yeah, you do." Inuyasha replied calmly.

"You're just saying that because you know that you're better than me at it."

"Yeah, so? It still means that you suck."

"Ok then, if I suck at wielding a sword, then YOU suck at hand-to-hand combat."

Now it was Inuyasha's turn to fume.

"I do not!"

"Of course you do. If I suck at fighting with a sword because you're better at it than me, then you must suck at hand-to-hand 'cause that's something I can do better than you."

"You are not better than me in hand-to-hand combat."

"I am and you know it."

"Keh!"

The truth was, Inuyasha did know it. When it came to fighting with nothing but the body, Inukigo could kick his ass, hands down. He just didn't want the others to know that. Inukigo smirked at his response, but let the matter drop. Unfortunately, a young kitsune found the topic of the conversation to be quite interesting. He bounded over to Inukigo, climbed up onto her lap, and looked up at her curiously.

"You can really beat Inuyasha up when you fight without a sword? I'd like to see that."

Inukigo looked down at the kit, and found it hard not to smile at his innocent curiosity, and his comment about wanting to see Inuyasha get beat up.

"Hai, I can," she paused when she was interrupted by a 'Keh!' but kept going. "As for a demonstration, I think you'll have to wait until I'm fully healed. I doubt that Inuyasha would agree to a sparring match with me if he thinks I'll get hurt."

"Aww…darn. I really wanted to see you beat him up."

"Oi, runt! Keep it up and you'll be the one beat up, not me." Inuyasha yelled, shaking his fist to emphasise his point.

At the threat, Shippou took off to the safety of Kagome's arms and immediately started to act as though he was scared for his life.

"Inu-ya-sha…" Kagome said with a rather annoyed look on his face.

"Kagome, no, Kagome don't…" was all Inuyasha could get out before he got cut off by what he saw coming.

"Osuwari." Kagome said calmly, causing Inuyasha to come into contact with the dirt for the second time that morning, except this time he was lying in the bottom of a very Inuyasha-like crater. Inukigo crawled over to peer at her brother's fallen form.

"I don't think that you need me to beat up Inuyasha, Shippou. Kagome does that all on her own."

The others didn't say anything, although they did have rather amused looks on their faces, as they nodded their agreement. Inuyasha chose this moment to pick himself up off the ground and glare at Kagome.

"Bitch, what the hell was that for?"

Inukigo turned to her brother in shock and just stared at him. 'D-does he realize how he just referred to her?'

"You know very well why I said it Inuyasha, so don't bother asking."

"Keh!" Inuyasha turned to his sister, noticing that she was staring at him intently. He found it kind of unnerving. "Nanda, Inukigo?"

Hearing her name, Inukigo jumped back to reality. "Huh? Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it Inuyasha."

Inuyasha looked at her for a moment, then shrugged and went back to pestering Kagome. Inukigo sat there silently, watching the two as they bickered.

'There is definitely something between them, I know that for sure now. But I wonder, how deep does it go? Maybe I can ask Sango later if I can get her alone. Huh, if Inuyasha is trying to hide his affection for Kagome, he isn't doing a very good job. I don't think that the moron realizes that he's half dog demon. Calling her bitch is as good as any term of endearment. He's such a baka!' Inukigo thought as she continued to stare at her brother out of the corner of her eye.

All was quiet for a few moments, until there was a small sound from somewhere in the distance.

"Is that a crow?" Sango said questioningly.

"That's what it sounded like." Miroku replied.

No one thought anything more of it until a small cry was heard.

"Inuyasha-sama!"

"Huh, what's that?" Inukigo asked as everyone looked around trying to find out which direction the voice was coming from. Suddenly, Inuyasha got a rather irritated look on his face and smacked his hand against the side of his neck.

"What the hell do you want, Myoga-jiji?"

"In-u-yasha-sama." Myoga said as he floated down into Inuyasha's hand.

"Did you say that it was Myoga-ji?" Inukigo asked as she moved closer to inspect the contents of Inuyasha's hand. Just then a previously flattened Myoga puffed up to his original size.

"Inuyasha-sama, I heard a rumour that you found Inukigo-sama. I came to see if it was true, and to tell you some valuable information if it was."

"Well, if you want to see if it's true, turn around and see for yourself."

Myoga did as he was told and turned around, coming face to face with Inukigo who happened to be staring at him intently.

"Yo, Myoga-ji."

"Inukigo-sama!" Myoga yelled as he promptly jumped from Inuyahsa's hand and onto Inukigo's nose, where he proceeded to help himself to a mid-morning snack. "It's so good to see you again. Where have you been for the past 50 years? I didn't know what happened to you after…"

*SMACK*

"It's good to see you too, Myoga-ji." Inukigo said dryly as she caught the - once again - flat Myoga in her hand. "For your information, I was sealed as well and was only released two days ago. By the way, how did you find out that I was back so quickly?"

"News travels quickly among the animals in the forest. A crow came to me at Totusai's yesterday and told me that a female inu-hanyou that looked just like Inuyasha had joined his group, and I immediately devised that it was you."

"Yeah, that's great Myoga-jiji, but you said that you had some important information if Inukigo was here. As you can see, she is, so spill it."

"Ah, yes. Totusai heard that there was a possibility of Inukigo being back with you, and informed me of a third sword that your father had crafted from one of his fangs for her. He told me that he was instructed to fuse it into the Tessaiga, and that to remove it all that needed to be done was for yourself and Inukigo to hold it at the same time."

"Thanks for the information Myoga-ji, but we already figured that out." Inukigo said, motioning to her hip.

"Huh? You did? How did you manage to figure that out?"

"Well…it was sort of an accident."

"An accident?"

"Yeah, Inukigo became a full demon, we didn't have anyway to change her back so I thought 'we have the same blood, so maybe Tessaiga will work,' I put it in her hand, she changed back and her sword appeared. There, end of story." Inuyasha said quickly, not wanting to bring up the events of the day before for fear of upsetting Inukigo again.

"Well, this is unexpected. I guess that I'll be on my way again then. It was good to see you again, Inukigo-sama."

"Matte, Myoga-ji."

"Hai, Inukigo-sama?"

"Do you happen to know anything else about this sword?"

"The only things that I know about it are that its name is Touitsaiga, and that it has the ability to use the 'Kaze no Kizu,' just as Tessaiga. If you want to know more, you'll have to go see Toutusai about it."

"Ok. Arigatou, Myoga-ji."

"If I am no longer needed, then I'll be on my way back to Totusai's."

"Yeah, yeah, Myoga-jiji. Get going already." And with that, the flea demon disappeared from sight.

"Well," Inukigo said after he was gone, "little bloodsucker hasn't changed at all has he?"

"Nope, still always tryin' to grab a quick meal." Inuyasha replied.

"At least he managed to supply some information about this sword." Inukigo said, turning her attention to the sword at her hip.

"So," Miroku piped up, "the sword's name is Touitsaiga. I wonder what other abilities it has besides the 'Kaze no Kizu?'"

"'Kaze no Kizu?' Myoga-ji said that Tessaiga uses that too. What is that Inuyasha?" Inukigo asked.

"It's an attack that strikes the place where clouds of youki or jyaki meet. If it's used right it can destroy 100 demons in one strike."

"Sugoi. That's a lot of power for one sword to have."

"Maybe you should learn how to use it, Inukigo-chan. It might come in handy later." Sango suggested.

"You might be right Sango-chan. What do you say Inuyasha? Are you gonna show me how to use the 'Kaze no Kizu?'"

"Yeah, seeing as I'm soooo much better with a sword than you, I guess I'll have to teach you how to use it properly."

"Uhh, not this again." Kagome said as she and the others sighed and shook their heads.

"Grrr…you just wait 'til my stomach heals up, baka."

"Keh, I'm lookin' forward to it. Then I can show everyone how much stronger and more skilled I am compared to you."

"That's it," Inukigo said as she got to her feet and cracked her knuckles, "Forget the wounds, I'm gonna take care of you right now!" she yelled as she started to advance on Inuyasha.

Inuyasha, despite his earlier confidence, was now looking kind of scared as his sister came to stand in front of him.

"Inukigo, c-calm down. Remember your wounds, they only closed up yesterday. You wouldn't want to hurt yourself again right?"

"Oh, I think it will be well worth it to see the look on your face. How about we show the others how I used to win all of our fights when we were little."

At this Inuyasha paled. "No, Inukigo anything but that please," but Inukigo showed no signs of stopping.

"No, Inukigo, DDDDOOOONNNN'TTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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Well, there's Chapter 11, finally! I am sooo sorry that it took so long to finish, but I had a lot of stuff going on with school, like studying and taking final exams (that's one of the good things about university, you get out for summer really early). I've started chapter 12 already, which will be the last chapter to 'Long Awaited Reunion.' Once I finish that I'll be starting the next fic in the series, which as of right now, I don't have a title for. But it will be up soon, seeing as I don't have much else to be doing now. Chapter 12 won't take so long as this one did, so it should be up some time early next week at the latest (if I get more reviews than it could be faster *hint hint*)