InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ One Simple Question ❯ The who did WHAT?! ( Chapter 17 )

 

Going to make a half-assed dedication here. This chapter is for iPoe and especially TMR, for reviews that make me think, and grin and fall asleep plotting ways to blind-side them without changing my story lol... You aren't the only 2 I'd want to thank, I'm singling you two out this time though.

 

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“Kagome.” The dead miko spoke low, entreatingly and commanding at once. As the eyes of the mikos met across the battlefield a lifetime of conversation passed between the two. Kagome nodded and threw the jewel high in the air towards Naraku and reached for her bow as Kikyou did the same. In complete harmony Kagome and Kikyou drew arrows from their quivers and nocked them, pulling the fletching until it tickled their cheeks. The double twang of the bowstrings releasing echoed through the clearing.

 

 

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Naraku's free hand clutched convulsively around the jewel as it fell into his grasp. Moryomaru roared as he saw the twin sacred arrows pierce Naraku's hand and strike the jewel simultaneously, purifying Naraku's soul and Onigumo's heart and re-purifying the jewel all in an instant.

 

A white/pink explosion of light and wind had everyone shielding their eyes as the dust settled.

 

After seeing that Kagome was unharmed InuYasha looked high and low for the jewel. He couldn't find it and he was getting frantic

 

For once Miroku's hand stayed on Sango's shoulders as she checked Kohaku from head to toe. She looked ready to cry. Kagome was afraid Naraku might have killed the boy after all, and then she saw his chest move.

 

“His arm might be broken and he's bruised all over. But he's alive.” Her eyes filled with tears as she met her best friend's gaze. “Arigato, Kagome-chan.”

 

Kagome felt her own eyes tear in sympathy as she shook her head at Sango to let her know no thanks were necessary. The ground came up to meet her as Kagome fell over, asleep. Healing Kohaku had drained more energy than she realized and once the adrenaline of fighting Naraku faded she was left without the strength to stay conscious.

 

“Where the fuck is it?! That little ball of trouble is not getting away from me again. Where the fuck did it bounce off to?!”

 

“InuYasha.” Kikyou's voice was exhausted and sad. Solemn brown eyes met flashing gold and the inu-hanyou was the first to look away.

 

“You will not find the jewel.”

 

At his puzzled look Kikyou sighed heavily and continued.

 

“My reincarnation was strong enough to shatter the jewel with no training, no idea how to use her powers. You think the jewel survived being shot by her as well as by me?”

 

InuYasha's face fell a moment as he thought about it. Kagome shooting the jewel would easily have shattered it again. But Kikyou shot it too this time. The damn thing could have been reduced to a fine dust for all he knew. He had to know.

 

“So is it dust or just shattered again?” Kikyou smiled a tiny smile.

 

“Not even the combined power of our soul could disintegrate the jewel. A new chapter in the quest for the Shikon no Kakera has begun.”

 

The thought of hunting down all those damn shards all over again was almost enough to make InuYasha's ears wilt. On the other hand though, it gave him a wonderful excuse to keep Kagome in his life. Man, would she be pissed when she woke to the news. InuYasha couldn't wait to tell her.

 

He was, in fact, grinning like a madman and hovering above her as she woke up inside Kaede's hut, surrounded by her friends. Even Kouga, Ginta, and Hakkaku managed to fit into the hut as she blinked the sleep from her eyes.

 

“Hey Kagome, guess what…” Her eyes focused on InuYasha's broad smile as his words sunk into her brain.

 

“WHAT?!”

 

**END FLASHBACK**

 

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“Sango.” InuYasha said quietly. His calm, serious demeanor raised her alertness a notch.

 

“Hai, InuYasha?” She watched as he scratched the back of his neck, irritated.

 

“Killing her at distance with my sword was one thing. You and the monk have been talking about just driving her away. I'm not gonna fight her just to drive her away, I don't want to get that close to her.”

 

“Is there something wrong, InuYasha?” The smooth voice of the monk came from his other side.

 

“Nothing to worry yourself about, monk. I just don't wanna get close to her. You think you and Sango can drive her off without me?” He crossed his arms in front of himself, daring the monk to ask more questions he didn't want to answer.

 

“Where will you be?”

 

“Out of scenting range but close enough to help if you need it.”

 

“That should be fine, InuYasha. Just let us know when we will be splitting up so we don't worry about you.”

 

“Keh, stupid humans. You shouldn't worry about me to begin with.” He turned away from them, nose in the air, leaving them looking at his arrogant profile.

 

“InuYasha,” the monk began again, “how is she able to stay ahead of use while so badly wounded?” At his friend's sheepish look Miroku smiled, confidant that the reason was something he could use to tease InuYasha with later. InuYasha clearing his throat and pulled his hands out of his haori sleeves, flexing his claws agitatedly. Miroku tapped his staff against his shoulder as he waited patiently. He knew InuYasha's impatience would make him talk soon.

 

“I'm following her tracks, not her scent.” InuYasha finally stated as he crossed his arms yet again, daring them to say anything. When he said that Miroku realized that InuYasha had not once brought his nose close to the ground to find a trace of their quarry. Why would he not use one of his keenest senses when it could save the village? Before he could formulate a question Miroku heard the soft voice of his wife.

 

“It's cause she's in heat, ne?” Miroku's eyebrows rose. He knew considerably less than the other two about demons and he equal parts confused and curious.

 

The hanyou nodded grudgingly, “That's why you two are gonna drive her off.”

 

“Please don't think I'm trying to make you uncomfortable, InuYasha,” Miroku said, his hands held up in a placating manner, “but I don't understand.”

 

InuYasha' head fell back as he look at the sky, an exasperated look on his handsome face.

 

“Youkai take certain traits from the animals they draw their powers from.” And the monk's understanding nod he smirked and continued, “You have any clue why you—“ His statement was cut off as Hachi landed a few feet from them and Kagome and Kohaku hopped off. As Hachi transformed into his normal form Kagome ran up with a bright smile.

 

“Hi guys! Sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?” Sango and Miroku greeted Kagome and rolled their eyes as InuYasha snarled, there they go again.

 

“What did you miss?! You missed a whole fucking day, bitch! I thought you were gonna come back yesterday!”

 

“I know that, InuYasha. I apologized already!” She declared, placing her hands on her hips menacingly.

 

“Yeah, I heard it myself.” Shippou declared as he leapt into his mother's arms to welcome her back.

 

Wanting to head off the argument before InuYasha ended up eating dirt Miroku quickly stepped between the two.

 

“So, what were you saying, InuYasha?” He `keh'd' softly, turning from the young miko, now hesitant to explain. He didn't want her hearing this. When everyone kept staring at them InuYasha exploded.

 

“Get the fuck off my back!” He leapt into the foliage and vanished.

 

“What was that about?” Kagome asked. She was glad she had left the bag of gifts and some of the things from her backpack at Kaede's. The thing still weighed a ton as it was. Dropping her bag to the ground Kagome went through it to look for ramen for lunch, knowing nothing would bring the hanyou back like the smell of instant noodles.

 

As Kohaku and Miroku went with Hachi to find some water Sango and Shippou caught her up on what she had missed. From the attack on the village to what InuYasha had been about to say when she arrived.

 

Kagome knew the hanyou too well, for once the smell of ramen floated into the forest he quickly returned to his friends. Unaware that the miko had been filled in on the situation he was taken aback by her question.

 

“So what were you going say when we showed up and interrupted?”

 

InuYasha shot a death glare at the taijiya and houshi before looking back to the inquisitive faces of Kagome, Shippou, Kohaku, and Hachi. Kagome had that glint in her eyes which told him in no uncertain terms he was either going to explain or have his back broken courtesy of his kotodama. Grumbling under his breath he huffed a sigh.

 

“Kohaku, take Hachi and Shippou and take them back to Kaede's.” When Shippou started crying Kagome glared at InuYasha, but when she realized what he had to say was something for `adults only' and that he wouldn't talk until they were gone she did her best to bribe her son and see them off quickly.

 

“I was about to ask the bouzo if he knew why he's so fucking perverted.”

 

When Miroku just looked at him blankly InuYasha sighed.

 

“Like I said, youkai take some traits from the animals they draw they power from. Most animals go through heat cycles.” He paused to give himself and the ladies time to fight their blushes. “With instinct and heat cycles a couple can mate once, have pups, and not go through the shit humans do. The problem is humans don't listen to their instincts anymore, and unlike animals who go into heat maybe once a year human women go through that shit every goddamn month.” At which point both girls blushed terribly and Miroku cleared his throat.

 

“Pardon me, InuYasha. But how do you know that? You don't seem to care about learning anything about humans.”

 

InuYasha tapped his nose with one clawed finger.

 

“I can smell it.” His comment caused both girls to again compete to imitate his haori color.

 

“And the thing is when a male smells females go into heat it sends his body into heat. But human men have pathetic noses, they can't tell when the female's body is receptive so there's nothing to tell his body when to pursue them, so they end up chasing women all the damn time.”

 

“You're right, InuYasha.”

 

InuYasha turned to Kagome, “Huh?”

 

Kagome blushed but answered, “You know that place I go that you hate so much? School? I learned that in school. And you're right, most animal breeds have at least one trigger that lets the male know when the females, uh, go into heat.”

 

Kagome began fiddling with her skirt, unsure whether or not she wanted to continue. “The reason a male human is so focused on sex is because he has to be. He must always be ready to make a baby so that when the woman is...” She made a motion with her hands, “Poof.”

 

The awkwardness of the conversation left them sitting in an uneasy silence until the girls announced they wanted to bathe and asked InuYasha where the nearest water was. As soon as the girls had left the circle of light thrown by the fire Miroku looked to InuYasha.

 

Miroku got a mischievous sparkle to his eyes.

 

“So InuYasha, as a hanyou, what's it like for you?” Neither heard the sounds made when Kagome grabbed Sango and the two crouched down behind the bushes to listen.

 

InuYasha blushed lightly but was too interested in the flickering flames of the campfire to realize what he was asked and respond appropriately(smacking the shit out of the bouzo). His voice was distracted and soft when he replied.

 

“Little of both. I get urges and thoughts out of nowhere which I guess is my human blood acting up. But every time Kagome and Sango go into heat I go through fucking hell and I know that's the youkai in me.”

 

“Wow, so it's actually worse for you than for me?”

 

InuYasha started at the sound of Miroku's voice and blushed as he realized how much he'd let slip.

 

“Keh.” His forceful blush was more than enough of an answer for Miroku.

 

“How do you do it? You never act like it. I was actually starting to wonder if that part of you worked properly, you act more like a monk than I do.”

 

“Keh, Kouga acts more like a monk than you do. And it's called respect, bouzo. She's too pure to be tainted, I wouldn't do that to her.”

 

“Tainted?”

 

“By the blood of a half-breed. Do you know what they'd call her? What they'd say? She gets pissed when they say shit about me, it'd break her heart if they said it to her face.”

 

“And when you say `her' you are of course referring to the Lady Kagome?” Miroku's eyes shined devilishly.

 

InuYasha's head whipped around, once again realizing too late what he was saying.

 

“Fucking bear.” He cursed as he red faced hanyou leapt from camp. Miroku waited a few moments before making a 'come hither' motion with his finger in the girls' direction.

 

“Alright, how long did you know we were here, houshi?” Sango glared as she and Kagome emerged from the brush.

 

“Since I saw the firelight reflect off four very interested eyes watching from the bushes. Do you know what he meant?”

 

Sango thought for a moment, “I'd guess he's picking up the scent of the bear youkai in heat no matter how hard he's trying not to and it's distracting him.”

 

“Does he really believe that? That his blood would taint…a woman?” Kagome asked in a small voice. Neither the exterminator nor the monk brought up the stutter, they knew she meant to ask if he thought his blood would taint her.

 

“Probably just a defense mechanism.” Sango said. “He's had to fight for the right to live his whole life. Taking a mate wouldn't pull him into her world, it would pull her into his. And I bet he doesn't think he could ever ask someone to go through that for him.”

 

That wasn't anything Kagome had thought about before. Now her mind was spinning a zillion ways at once.

 

The group decided to make camp, there was nothing they could do without the hanyou. Everything, it seemed, hinged on InuYasha's newfound maturity and his ability to get over everything he had said. And everything that had ever been said to him. And anything done to him. ...Kagome's thoughts kept spiraling long into the night. Being a teen isn't easy!

 

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A/N: Ok, I know, little action, lots of talking, had to be done, I'm sorry, I'm a story-teller before anything else lol The good news is that I didn't make you guys wait another few weeks like I was planning on. This chapter was about as easy as pulling teeth, but I decided to bully through. Go me! I blame the lack of cliffy on the difficulty factor of getting my brain to leak onto computer in coherent patterns. My new kitten is attempting to sniff my brain out through my nostril at the moment, and with that it's 4:30 am my time, I'm going to slide from here into bed. Ja ne.