InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Long Awaited Reunion ❯ Welcome Home ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 12: Welcome Home

It was a short time later that the group had set out to return to Kaede's village, and were now on a path leading out of the forest. One member in particular, however, was not in good spirits.

"Oh, c'mon Inuyasha, it's not that bad." Kagome said as she tried to keep from laughing at the hanyou's current predicament.

"Keh!!"

At the moment, Inuyasha was walking a little ahead of the group, so as to hide the slight blush on his face and regain some of his dignity. Inukigo had succeeded in thoroughly embarrassing him.

"Stop pouting Inuyasha. It's your own fault for bragging." Inukigo said as she came to walk beside her brother. She hadn't expected him to be this embarrassed over her little 'punishment,' but she felt that he deserved it, so it didn't really bother her.

"Keh! I ain't pouting, and I wasn't bragging."

"Oh, for Kami's sake Inuyasha, you WERE bragging, you ARE pouting, now stop being such a baby, or do I have to rub your ears again?"

At this, Inuyasha's face reddened and he shut up. No way did he want her to do that again.

'Of all the things she could have done, she just had to rub my ears. It's so damn embarrassing.'

He thought back to about only half an hour ago. When Inukigo had mentioned 'how she used to win their fights when they were little,' he had instantly known what she was planning to do. He had silently prayed to any Kami that was listening that he was wrong, but unfortunately it seemed as though the Kamis were out to get him. His sister had proceeded to rub his ears, which resulted in him becoming totally placid. His body slumped, his eyes drooped, and he got a really dopey grin on his face as his brain went off to la la land chasing butterflies. What made it worse is that when she decided he'd had enough, he whimpered and followed her hand looking for more. He'd snapped out of it when he heard the rest of his friends giggling, and he'd been red in the face ever since.

'Kami knows that I do like having my ears rubbed, but did she really have to do it in front of everyone? It's bad enough that they know I'm ticklish.' He was brought out of his thoughts by a light touch on his right ear. He looked over to see his sister smiling at him, and couldn't help but smile slightly himself. 'I've missed her smile.'

"Now, that's much better," she commented when she saw his mouth turn up slightly. "Inuyasha, I'm not sorry for rubbing your ears, but I am sorry for making you so embarrassed. I really didn't think that you would feel that way around your friends."

"Our friends," he corrected her.

"Our friends," she agreed. "Besides, I don't think you have to feel that way about it anymore."

"Why's that?"

"They've all forgotten about it, so I don't think that you need to be embarrassed anymore."

Inuyasha looked at her questioningly before turning slightly to observe his friends, discovering that things had indeed completely returned to normal. Miroku was walking beside Sango, busy trying to cop a feel every few moments, and Sango was busy keeping his hand from coming in to contact with her ass. Kagome was talking with Shippou and laughing occasionally as he told her stories and showed her small tricks with his fox magic. He turned back around with a slight smile on his face.

"Of course," Inukigo said, drawing his attention, "that doesn't mean we won't use it on you later."

She had a sly grin on her face and a playful glint in her eye and Inuyasha couldn't help but play along with her teasing.

"Why you…I'll get you for that."

"You can try."

"Are you challenging me?"

"Maybe…"

"Then I won't hesitate to accept."

"I would expect nothing less from you, Inuyasha."

"Come here!" Inuyasha yelled as he made a grab for his sister. 'Heh, I'm not the only one who's ticklish.'

"No way! You're gonna have to catch me!" Inukigo laughed as she dodged Inuyasha's hands.

And so the two hanyous began bounding around the path like a pair of puppies.

"Well, would you look at that," Miroku said as he watched the twin half demons jump around in front of the rest of the group as they walked.

*CRACK*

"Looking at that is not going to make me ignore THAT, Houshi-sama." Sango gritted out.

"Hai, hai, Sango." Miroku replied, while rubbing the throbbing red hand print on his cheek.

"Still Sango-chan, just look at them. They look so light-hearted, and I've never seen Inuyasha so happy before."

"I have to agree with you Kagome-chan. They look like they're having a lot of fun just jumping around like a couple of pups."

"Yeah, and look," Shippou piped up, "it looks like Inuyasha's gonna catch Inukigo."

All members of the group turned their attention back to the two hanyous when a squeal was heard from Inukigo, who had been tackled, albeit gently, to the ground by her brother.

"Alright Inuyasha, you won. Let me up now."

"No, I don't think I will just yet," then a little quieter so that she was the only one who could hear him, "I think that I'll show the others that I'm not the only one of us who's ticklish. What do you think?" he asked before he began to attack her ribs, being careful to avoid her still healing injuries.

"Iie, Inu-haha-yasha!! *ha* St-haha-op!! Stop it!" Inukigo screamed breathlessly.

"Nope!" Inuyasha laughed as he continued to tickle her relentlessly.

"Onegai…onii-chan?" Inukigo said, in hopes that calling him big brother would get him to let her up.

Inuyasha stopped tickling her and stood up with a huge grin on his face, which irked Inukigo to no end. He then grabbed her hands to help her to her feet, all the while keeping a triumphant smirk on his face.

"I'll get you for that." Inukigo threatened as she crossed her arms and pouted.

"I know you will." Inuyasha laughed as he kept walking.

Inukigo glared at his back for a few moments before shaking her head and following him, both hanyous oblivious to the barely contained laughter emanating from their companions.

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"Kagome, where's its shard?!" Inuyasha yelled as he dodged the razor edge tail of the giant snake youkai they were fighting. 'The thing is fast for being so damn big.'

Kagome looked the youkai over, searching for the tell-tale pink light of a shikon shard before shouting out her reply.

"It's in its forehead Inuyasha!!"

"Inuyasha, can I fight it yet?!" Inukigo whined from the sidelines with Kagome and Shippou.

"I said NO, Inukigo! You can't fight in the condition you're in. You'll just end up hurting yourself." Inuyasha yelled back.

"Humph." 'You say that, but I bet YOU would be fighting in my condition if the situations were reversed.'

"Don't worry, Inukigo," Shippou said from Kagome's shoulder, "you'll get to fight the next time we run into a youkai with a shard."

"But I wanted to fight now. I haven't had a good fight in fifty years…don't look at me that way. The fights over the last two days don't count, I wasn't in my right mind. Besides, I want some excise other than me and Inuyasha chasing one another around."

Kagome looked at the disgruntled hanyou with sympathy. 'Poor Inukigo-chan. She's desperate for some kind of confrontation where she gets to beat something up. She is so similar to Inuyasha that way that it's scary, even if they are twins.' Then she got an idea.

"Inukigo-chan, why don't you just wait until Inuyasha, Miroku-sama, Sango-chan, and Kirara get the shard, then you can fight the snake youkai. I'm sure Inuyasha wouldn't worry about you getting hurt then. The youkai isn't all that strong, so it should be fine."

"I would be happy with that, even though the youkai isn't that strong and wouldn't be much of a challenge without the shard. But I still don't think that he'll let me. I swear, he's never been this protective of me before. I mean, of course he would worry about me and take care of me when I got hurt, but he never acted this way before."

"I think that he just really missed you and now that you're back he doesn't want anything bad to happen to you." Kagome replied with a smile on her face.

"I guess," Inukigo replied as she contemplated Kagome's theory. "Ooi! Inuyasha! Can I fight the youkai after you get the shard out?!" Inukigo yelled to her brother.

"NO!!"

"Didn't think so," Inukigo sighed dejectedly. 'Guess I really am going to have to wait until next time.' She thought as she dropped her head in defeat and Kagome patted her on the back reassuringly.

"Inukigo, Kagome, watch out!!"

"Huh?" both girls looked up to see what Inuyasha was yelling about, only to see the huge snake youkai barrelling towards them. Apparently, it thought that the two women and the kitsune were off to the side of the battle because they were too weak to fight, and decided that it would go after them. Kagome just stared at it, unable to move from shock, while Inukigo shifted into a fighting stance with a huge grin on her face.

'Looks like I'm gonna be a part of this fight after all.' "Move it Kagome-chan." Inukigo said hurriedly as she gave the other girl a slight push to get her going. Kagome didn't need to be told twice and instantly took off out of the way. Inukigo cracked her knuckles and flexed her claws as she crouched lower, ready to spring at the snake youkai once it got close enough.

"Inukigo! What the hell are you doing?!" Inuyasha shouted as he tried to catch up with the youkai before it reached his injured sister.

"What's it look like I'm doing, baka?!" Inukigo screamed back. At that moment the youkai reared back as it prepared to strike at her with its poison fangs. Inukigo smirked at its attitude. 'Stupid snake. I've seen your speed. Even with that shard and my injuries I'm still fast enough to avoid you.' With that she jumped at the youkai with such force and speed that a huge dust cloud was kicked up behind her. The youkai had chosen the exact same moment to strike at her. They looked as if they would collide head on before Inukigo twisted slightly in mid-air at the last second, allowing her to dodge the youkai's head entirely and put her in the perfect position to end its life quickly as they flew by each other.

"Hikari shou Tessou!!" she yelled as brought her raised hand down on the youkai. Her claws lengthened slightly and began to glow with power like Inuyasha's claws when he used his 'Sankon Tessou,' however, where his claws let off golden yellow energy, hers emanated a shimmering, almost blinding, white light, which cleanly cut through the snake youkai, effectively beheading it. Both pieces dropped heavily to the ground, while Inukigo landed lightly beside it. The others, well, except Inuyasha, who mumbled something that sounded strangely like 'show-off,' looked at her in awe as she casually flicked her claws.

Sango, who was dressed in her exterminator clothing with Hiraikatsu slung on her back, came over to stand beside Kagome.

"You know, she may be a whole lot like Inuyasha, but after seeing that I can say that I see Sesshomaru in her as well."

"I'd say," Kagome replied.

Inuyasha snorted to himself as he went to retrieve the shard. He heard their comments, and he knew what they meant by them. Inukigo, like Sesshomaru, was very graceful when she was fighting. He had already known that. 'Graceful.' He scoffed at that. Big deal. Being graceful didn't have anything to do with battle. It just made you look pretty while you were fighting. To him, a fight was just about beating the crap out of who you were fighting, not how you looked while doing it. He had told Inukigo that much once. She had proceeded to lecture him about how it saved movements and helped conserve energy in a fight. He had said that he thought that was a load of bullshit. She had just sighed and told him that he was hopeless, then proceeded to beat the shit out of him in a sparring match to prove her point. He still thought it was a load of bullshit.

As he cut the shard from the snake youkai's head he glanced over to his sister, who hadn't moved from the spot where she had landed after her jump. She was stretching experimentally while carefully inspecting her midsection and shoulder. 'Did she hurt herself? Keh, I told her that she would.'

"Ooi, Inukigo! You hurt?!" he called to her after he gave the Shikon shard to Kagome.

"Iie, Inuyasha! I'm fine!" she yelled back as she turned to walk towards them.

"You sure?" Inuyasha asked as he raised one eyebrow and looked at her suspiciously.

She gave him an annoyed look and rolled her eyes.

"Inuyasha, do you smell any blood on me?" He gave a quick sniff, then shook his head no. "And

do you smell any pain coming off of me at all?" Another sniff, and another head shake. "Well, I guess that means that I'm fine, doesn't it?"

"Keh!"

Inukigo just ignored him. She was in a rather good mood and wasn't about to let him ruin it.

"Well Inukigo," Miroku piped up, "I must say that although you are Inuyasha's twin, you greatly resemble Sesshomaru in the way you choose to fight."

Good mood effectively ruined.

"So I've been told." Inukigo muttered darkly.

"Huh, Inukigo-chan? Is something wrong?" Kagome asked.

"I just don't like being compared to him. It's nothing that any of you need to concern yourselves over. Just forget about it." Inukigo replied, a little harshly. She then began to walk away from the group in the direction that they had been heading towards the village. "We should keep moving so we reach the village before it gets dark."

Kagome was about to press further, but a nudge from Inuyasha caught her attention. She looked at him and he shook his head - this was not something to be questioned right now. Kagome nodded her head in understanding, but told herself that she would ask about it again later.

With silence heavy in the air, the rest of the group of shard hunters began to follow the female hanyou on the path towards their destination.

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About two hours after the encounter with the snake youkai, the group was still walking towards the village, although the demons of the group could now smell it so they would be able to see it momentarily. The awkward silence that had befallen them earlier had been broken by Inukigo a little over an hour and a half ago. She had suddenly stopped, turned around, and threw her hands into the air, complaining about how quite everyone was, completely forgetting that she was the one who had brought it on in the first place. None of them dared to mention that, believing that she was now acting very much like Inuyasha and didn't want to endure a tantrum.

So now they walked together, chatting idly, Inuyasha and Inukigo in front with Kagome between them and Shippou clinging tightly to her shoulder while Miroku and Sango walked a short ways behind with Kirara in the same position as Shippou on Sango's shoulder.

Inukigo was lost in her thoughts for a moment, not really listening to the conversations going on around her. She knew that they would be at the village soon. Not only could she smell it, and see the faint wisps of smoke from the huts in the village, but she also remembered exactly where it was. She could have found it even without her youkai senses leading her. The area hadn't really changed in fifty years, except for the occasional new path made by travelling merchants, or abandoned battlefields left over from the wars. Thinking about how little things had changed brought a question to Inukigo's mind.

"Ne, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was brought out of his small argument with Shippou by his sister's voice.

"Nani, Inukigo?"

Inukigo kept her gaze trained on the path ahead of her as she asked him her question.

"The villagers, do they…accept you?"

"Nanda?"

"Do the villagers accept you as a hanyou?"

Inuyasha thought for a moment before giving her an answer.

"Well, sort of. They're afraid of youkai, and since I'm part youkai there is some distrust there, but it's gotten better over the past year since I've been protecting the village. They don't fear me as much and aren't as ignorant towards me as they used to be."

"So, the villagers don't mind you being in the village?"

Inuyasha just shrugged.

"Don't know. If they do they don't say anything."

"Why are you asking this stuff Inukigo-chan?" Kagome asked.

Inukigo turned her gaze to the younger girl walking to her left.

"I wanted to know if the villagers would complain about me being there. I don't want to stay in the village if I'm going to be a bother to them."

"Keh. Who cares if they don't want you there. Not like they can really do anything about it."

"I care Inuyasha," Inukigo replied haughtily as she glared at her brother, "I'm not going to make humans feel uncomfortable in their own village, in their home, where they should feel safe. That would be heartless, and I wouldn't feel right doing something like that."

Inuyasha didn't answer her, just nodded and turned his attention back to the path. 'Should've known. She's always been that way, not wanting to cause trouble with anyone who didn't cause her trouble first. Except me that is.'

"I don't think you'll have to worry much about that sort of thing, Inukigo-chan." Sango said.

"I agree with Sango. The villagers here seemed to be more inclined to accept demons that mean them no harm. Having Inuyasha, Shippou, and Kirara in the village constantly over the past year has shown them that not all demons are bloodthirsty, human-hating monsters. They may be a little wary of you at first because you are new, but I'm sure that will pass quickly." Miroku added.

"Yeah, Inukigo. And we'll all back you up too, so the villagers know that you're a good demon." Shippou said.

'That won't save me from the disgust that most of them probably have against hanyous, but I can deal with that. I have for my entire life.' "Arigatou, minna," Inukigo replied with a smile on her face. She then sighed, "I just hope that you guys are right about this."

"Well, Inukigo-chan, looks like you're about to find out." Kagome said happily.

"Huh?" Inukigo replied, then looked in front of her. They were at the edge of the village. She had been so caught up in her thoughts and the conversation that she hadn't noticed that they come so close to it. "I guess I am." 'Guess it's now or never.'

"Stop looking so worried. Everything will be fine." Inuyasha said.

Inukigo still looked unsure.

"Inukigo-chan, don't be so worried. Inuyasha's right, everything will be fine. Now, let's do this properly," Kagome stated as she walked in front of Inukigo and turned to face her. Inukigo was confused as Kagome looked her in the eye and smiled widely.

"Welcome home, Inukigo-chan."

Inukigo's eyes widened as a look of shock came across her face.

"H-home?"

"Yes home, baka. What else would it be?" Inuyasha asked tolerantly.

Inukigo's mouth opened and closed a few times before she realized she had nothing to say. She hadn't known what to call it. She just started smiling along with everyone else, and they continued on their way to Kaede's hut.

'Home, I guess that would be the right thing to call it, but, I've never really thought of any one place as home. Not for a very long time. My home was wherever Inuyasha was. It's the same now, except there are my friends as well. So, this place will be my home, as long as Inuyasha, Kagome-chan, Sango-chan, Miroku, Shippou, and Kirara are with me. Wherever I go, I'll be home, as long as they are by my side.'

I am home.

The End

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Chapter 12, finally! I really enjoyed writing this, but to tell you the truth, I'm glad that I finished, 'cause I want to get into my other stories. I left a few loose ends purposely, and they'll be tied up later. I can't believe it's done! I can't wait to get started on the next story. Sorry, no preview, 'cause I have a few different stories floating around in my head, and I'm not sure what order they should go in. So, you'll have to wait *laughs evilly*. I am trying to work up my courage to write an R-rated fic, mainly cause it fits with some of my ideas, the main one being Inuyasha and Kagome getting together. Well, that's all for now, it may be a couple of weeks before my next fic makes an appearance. I want to write a few chapters before I start posting so the same thing that happened with this fic doesn't happen again (meaning, I don't want to be really behind in my chapters, like I was when writing this fic).