InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ My Enemy, My Friend ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I make no money from this story and own none of the characters. Nor do I own the fandom. I only own my little plot line.

03-18-2011:

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to write this, a lot is going on and I have very little time to myself lately.

XOXOXO:

Chapter Eight:

Bankotsu and Kagome walked for six hours with no signs of trouble. They came to the deepest part of the forest, where the underbrush was really thick and every ten feet was a low hanging branch. Bankotsu used his free hand to bush a low hanging branch out of the way.

Kagome walked behind him allowing his body to clear the path for her. She blushed when her stomach rumbled loudly.

Bankotsu chuckled. "We will stop and eat soon. It looks like we have a couple hours left before sunset."

She nodded and continued following him. Her feet ached and she was starting to feel lower back pain kicking in. 'I don't know how much more of this I can take.' she yawned.

He pushed deeper into the forest with his eyes scanning both sides of their path and then the front of it. An hour later he came to a small clearing about ten feet around with low hanging branches connecting almost forming a circle.

'It looks like this will have to do.' He frowned." Go ahead and make camp. Dig a small fire pit beneath the tree limbs in the middle of the clearing."

She nodded. "What are you going to do?"

He smirked. "I'm going to hunt. Keep your bow handy just in case. I'll be back soon."

She nodded and started digging the fire pit. 'I hope he gets something good tonight. I really don't want fish.' Once the pit was three feet deep she stood up and gathered some fire wood and small stones. She circled the pit with the stones and sighed. 'I wish I had my lighter or matches. If I did the fire would already be going.'

She stared at the pit and tapped her chin. "Now what did they do on that nature program?" She snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah, they rubbed two sticks together." She picked up two of the sticks and frowned. She held one straight up and down and the other straight side to side and began rubbing. 'Come on spark already.'

She continued to vigorously rub the sticks together and frowned. 'Why isn't it working?' She huffed and threw the sticks down. She picked up two of the rocks and slammed them together a few times. "Good grief, spark already!" She slammed them together really hard and tiny sparks flew into the pile of sticks.

She blinked when nothing caught fire. She huffed and threw the rocks down. "A lot of help that was," She sat there glaring at the fire pit as if expecting her glare to start the fire. She growled. "He made it look so easy." She sat there plucking the grass with her fingers. 'What did I miss?' She began listing off how she had watched Bankotsu start one and blinked. "Leaves…"

She stood up and walked around picking up some of the dried leaves. When she had a good handful she carried them over to the pit and sighed. She dropped them into the pit sprinkling them on the wood and picked up the rocks again. "Okay you baka fire, start!" She slammed the stones together a few times and squealed when the sparks started the leaves smoking.

She slammed the stones together a few more times and gently blew on the tiny flame until it caught the wood. She dropped the stones to the ground and grinned. "Ha, that wasn't so hard."

She walked around gathering some bigger sticks. 'These should do nicely.' She carried them over to her tiny camp and smiled. 'See I can survive on my own.'

Her eyes widened as a hand clamped over her mouth and her hands were pulled behind her back. She felt herself being pulled to her feet and away from the fire. Her heart skipped a beat inside her chest.

"Don't try anything funny girl," a deep gravelly voice rasped against her ear.

Her face paled and she felt her legs tightening. She felt icy claws crawling along her skin as she noticed four more men come up on the sides of her. Beads of sweat tricked down her face and back simultaneously.

She shook her head mumbling against the hand over her mouth. She kicked out with her legs trying to keep her attackers at bay.

The one holding her from behind yanked her hands up behind her back causing her to wince in pain. She resumed kicking and bit the hand and slammed her head back causing the leader to let her go.

The man swore and shook his hand glaring at her. His good hand covered his nose and he growled. "Get her boys!"

Kagome yelped and glanced around looking for a possible escape. Finding none she bit her bottom lip and punched the first jaw in her reach. "Get away from me!" She swung around kneeing the second guy in the balls and used her fist to break the nose of the third one.

The fourth one chuckled. "Looks like we found us a feisty one guys." He leered at Kagome and dove towards her.

She dove to the side to avoid his grab and screamed as she felt the leader dragging her by the hair. She tried digging her nails into the skin of his hand and kicked thrashing around. "Let me go you creep!"

He hauled her to her feet and slammed her back against a tree. "Just cooperate before somebody gets hurt."

She grit her teeth against the pain in her back and beat her fists against his chest. "Stop it!" She tried to knee him and found his body pinned against hers with her back against the tree.

Tears streamed down her face as she continued beating her fists against him. "Leave me alone!"

Her eyes widened as he raised his hand. She closed her eyes trying to brace for the strike.

"Oi, get off her!"

Her eyes flew open as she felt the man's body ripped away from hers. She watched him get thrown across the clearing and hit the ground hard.

Bankotsu stared at her. "Stay put."

Her mouth opened and then closed. She nodded. Her arms wrapped around her waist and she fell to her knees. She noticed a dead deer over by the fire.

Bankotsu calmly placed Banryu against the tree next to Kagome. He snorted. "You bastards aren't even worth getting my weapon dirty over." He held his open hand up and cracked it into a fist.

He stepped forward keep Kagome's position by the tree to his back. He grinned evilly. "So you cowards think its fun to gang up on a defenseless girl, eh?" He snorted. "Try fighting a real battle." He made a 'bring it on' motion with one hand. "Either you come to me or I will come for you." He smirked at the fear that jumped into the eyes of the bandits.

Kagome pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them as she watched Bankotsu.

He side steeped the first attacker bringing his arm up and let the man slam chest first into his hard arm. He drove a dagger into the man's kidney and then kicked the man aside and spun around driving a fist into the second one's stomach. He drove the dagger into the third guy's guy's heart, brought his knee up slamming it into the guy's chin, dislocating his jaw. He used his hands to shove the guy away.

He spun around with an axe kick to the fourth guy's shoulder, sending the man to his knees. Bankotsu spat on the man and used one hand around his neck to lift the man off the ground.

He stared into the man's eyes. "She is feisty, but she's also under my protection." He hauled back his fist and slammed it into the man's stomach and then snapped his neck and tossed him into the leader.

The leader caught his man and stumbled back from the force of the throw. He tripped over a stone and fell onto his back with the fourth man on top of him. The leader's eyes widened as saucers as he tried to shove the bigger man off his body.

Bankotsu reached down with one hand and picked up the fourth man tossing him aside like a rag doll.

He glared at the leader. "Next time you and your buddies better pick on someone else." His foot stomped down on the guy's stomach.

The leader's body instinctively jerked to a semi sitting up position and he spat blood from his mouth. "Fuck you."

Bankotsu's foot connected with the man's face sending the man to lie back down. Bankotsu dropped is knee onto the man's crotch, smirking as the man groaned spitting up more blood.

Pure malice danced in Bankotsu's eyes. "You won't be doing any fucking period."

Bankotsu buried the dagger to the hilt in the man's sack. He chuckled darkly and spoke icily. "No one messes with anyone who is under my protection." He twisted the blade and yanked it out, quickly slicing it across the man's windpipe.

He sighed and wiped the dagger on the bandit's chest and grunted. He stood up and searched the clearing to ensure there were no more attackers, before walking back over to Kagome.

He cupped her face and made her look into his eyes. His tone was soft. "Are you okay?" She launched herself into his arms and cried into his chest. He gently rubbed her back. "It's okay Kagome, they can't hurt you now."

She nodded and sobbed into his chest a few minutes and then pulled back to stare into his eyes. "Thank you."

"I told you I wouldn't let anyone hurt you."

She hugged him and closed her eyes. He pat her back another minute and then helped her to her feet. He placed Banryu on his shoulder and led her over to the fire. He cut the meat and poked it onto the sticks. He set them over the fire and pat her shoulder.

"Stay here while I clear out the trash." He stood to his feet and lugged the bodies into the trees where she wouldn't have to see them.

She sighed and rubbed her hands along her arms while she stared at the meat. 'I hope I can keep it down when it gets done.'

Bankotsu returned to their small camp and sat on a fallen log polishing his blade. He frowned. 'She really needs to learn to defend herself.' He smirked. 'Guess I could teach her, but she won't like how I do it.' He chuckled inside his mind.

The two sat there in companionable silence as they waited for the food to cook.

XOXOXO:

The second village proved a little more helpful, but not much.

"Hai, the girl came through here perhaps four days ago and but she wasn't alone."

Miroku blinked. "You mean she was traveling with someone?"

The man nodded. "Hai, he was a strong looking chap. It seemed to me that they had been traveling together for some time because they seemed at ease with each other. But, I warn you he has a bad temper."

Miroku frowned. "Kind sir, can you tell me anymore about her traveling companion?"

The man's face turned white and he shook his head. "Iie sir. Only that he has a wicked temper and you'd do well to steer clear of him." With that the man ran away as if the devil himself were nipping at his heels.

Sango sighed and placed a hand on Miroku's shoulder. "Let's go tell Inuyasha and Shippo."

He nodded and they left the village.

Inuyasha huffed. "Well, anything?"

Miroku said. "All we could find out is that Kagome has been through here and she wasn't traveling alone."

Inuyasha bellowed. "What?" He started pacing. "How long ago did she come by? Who was she traveling with?"

Sango shook her head. "The villager wouldn't say. Inuyasha, he got scared after we asked about her traveling with someone."

Miroku nodded and frowned. "Sango's right. He couldn't get away fast enough once we started pressing for information about it."

Inuyasha huffed. "Maybe I should talk to him?"

Miroku shook his head. "Iie Inuyasha. The man was frightened enough without you scaring him."

Sango sighed. 'At least we know she is safe.' Her brows knitted. 'But why was that villager so scared when discussing her traveling companion?' She gripped her weapon and grit her jaw. "Well standing here arguing isn't getting us any closer to Kagome. At least now we know we are heading in the right direction."

Miroku nodded. "That's true. So should we press on towards the next village then?"

Sango nodded and walked off following Inuyasha, who had already started walking off.

Kirara mewed tiredly and hopped onto Miroku's shoulder. He scratched behind her ears. "Rest Kirara, I'm sure once you have recovered from your cold Sango will be eager to move faster."

Kirara mewed and closed her eyes. Shippo climbed onto Miroku's shoulder next to her and sighed. "Let's go Miroku."

The monk nodded and set off to follow the others.

When the sun set Inuyasha huffed. "Make camp, but be ready to move out at sunrise."

Sango and Miroku quickly dug a fire pit and collected some wood. They pulled the bagged rice out of Kagome's pack and Miroku placed a pot of water over the fire. Sango dumped three cups of rice into the water and frowned. 'Kagome makes this look so easy.'

She sighed and sat down cleaning her large boomerang.

Inuyasha paced the camp with his hands behind his back. 'Damnit, why did the sun have to sink already?' He inhaled deeply and his eyes widened. 'Graveyard soil…?' His eyes widened as a familiar figure walked out of the trees.

Sango gasped. "Kikyo?"

The clay priestess walked over to her lover. "Inuyasha, we must speak."

Miroku stood up. "Lady Kikyo, what brings you here?"

Kikyo spoke plainly. "I bring disturbing news." She stared into wide golden orbs. "It seems the leader of the Schichinatai has once again risen from his grave."

Inuyasha growled low and deadly. "How the hell does that bastard keep coming back?" He paced across the dirt floor.

Kikyo said calmly, "How he rose this time I am not certain, but I do know he nor his weapon or clothes were in the mountain's remains."

Miroku blinked. "This is disturbing news."

Sango frowned. "Especially considering that villager told us Kagome is not traveling alone."

Kikyo's eyes zeroed in on the slayer. "You have news of my reincarnation?"

Sango sighed and walked over to check on the rice.

Inuyasha filled Kikyo in on what the villager said.

Miroku cleared his throat. "Let's not jump to any conclusions now. After all Lady Kagome is a smart one and would know who he was."

Sango jumped up. "Of course Kagome wouldn't travel with him of all people. Not without a real good reason." Her eyes narrowed on Inuyasha, before she flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and stomped away.

Miroku sighed and spoke calmly. "I'll go with her."

Inuyasha stared at Kikyo. "Don't even suggest it. I know Kagome can be stubborn, but she would never betray us."

He walked over to the food and sat by the fire huffing. 'There is no way Kagome would ever betray her friends.' He stared into the fire and sighed. 'So who is she traveling with?'

Kikyo stared at the stars and blinked. 'At least she can no longer control my Inuyasha. Since I removed his beads she has no physical hold on him anymore.'

XOXOXO:

A/N: Okay finally done with chapter eight.

03-23-2011:

Forgive my tardiness in posting this. Apparently ffnet is doing maintenance again so it is taking even longer than I expected to update anything.