InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Only to be Distracted ❯ To Know Your Tricks ( Chapter 1 )

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

The next morning Kagome dragged her dirty yellow pack across the floor and started to pick through it. It was odd; it never seemed to get smaller no matter how many weeks she carried it. Maybe Inuyasha was right and she really just kept loading it until she couldn't carry any more. Must be anxiety, nowhere to call home.

She hummed a melancholy little tune that was the theme song of a movie that was the current rage. That was another thing, why do all the love stories end up so sad? She shifted some more stuff in her pack.

There was, she slid her fingers across her colored pencils, a hole in the box. She pulled it out and looked at it in puzzlement. She dug down deeper and came up with a fine silk scarf, shredded. "Oh!" more things were unearthed from the recesses of the pack, each with it's own injury.

Kagome was head and shoulders now into the pack, spilling its contents across the floor of the headman's hut. Her raven black hair caught in the zipper and she impatiently ripped it free, leaving behind several strands. She sat back stood up and took the pack by its bottom upending it and dumping an astonishing array of objects onto the floor of the vestibule.

"Who has been messing with my stuff!?"

Sango had actually had good nights sleep. Apparently, blowing up at Miroku was good for her. Maybe she should just beat him up and never let herself think of him again. She snuggled into Kirara's side considering this.

Sunlight was making its way through the cracks in the stable wall and Sango was a country girl at heart. So she got up to go to the bathhouse and then to scrub down Kaede's home.

When she returned across the square she had hot water in buckets suspended across her shoulders on a small yoke. Inuyasha could see her from his perch and considered helping but he had his own suspicions about the extent of the mess. Kill your youkai out in the open and then leave. That was the rule he lived by. If Sango was feeling self-sacrificing then it was time to make himself scarce. She was no better than Kagome about sharing what she called 'common responsibilities'.

As Sango rolled the door screen up with a brisk snap the hanyou was off in the opposite direction. He found Miroku making his way back from the rice fields and together they went to the place he had examined so quickly the night before.

"There's not much to be gathered from the tracks here but what are these bizarre marks?" Miroku was staring at a radiating pattern of punctures crossing the field not once but twice.

Inuyasha dropped dog-like to the ground and began to sniff his way along the tracks. "It's the smell I noticed last night. Like some kind of musty old pottery or something."

"Well, do you think you can follow it?" The hanyou snorted in response and crept off on all fours towards the tree line.

"What-cha tracken?" Shippou's voice behind him made Miroku jump. The kitsune had another of Kagome's treats. This one was a hard ball of candy on a stick that twirled around when you pushed a button. Miroku felt that the future people obviously had very strange priorities to even think something like that up.

"Inuyasha thinks we had visitors last night."

"Huh." Shippou twirled his stick thoughtfully. "Kagome can't find her game boy and says everything in her pack is all fucked up. She's really pissed."

"Inuyasha,"

"I'm busy."

"Inuyasha, someone's been messing with Kagomes pack."

The hanyou looked up at that. "Putting something in or taking something out?" he wanted to know.

"They took the magic picture box apparently. And damaged a lot of things doing it."

"Broken?"

"Punctured, like with a dagger." Shippou volunteered. He walked over to Inuyasha.

"Kagome pissed?"

"Extremely. What are all these little holes?"

"They belong to something that went in there." Inuyasha pointed to the trees. Miroku joined them.

"Good letfs follow it. Maybe it will keep us busy most of the morning." The other two solemnly agreed. Staying out of the village for a bit seemed very wise.

They moved among the thickets of trees following the odd, hole-like, tracks. Then as the undergrowth thickened the tracks stopped.

"Whatever it is, this thing can climb." Inuyasha indicated a series of parallel scrapes on the side of a tree. Miroku frowned and used his staff to poke up into the tree they were under. A movement to their left caught the corner of Inuyasha's eye and he spun to face it as a dark and spiny claw flashed past, slicing his cheek.

Shippou gave a shrill cry and dove forward away from the strange creature that had appeared so suddenly behind him. It seemed it was the pot they had taken from the center of the village the day before. Horribly transformed it reared up on numerous spider-like legs.

"What in the-" Miroku spun and looked at the ancient pot monster as it hit the ground, leaving good sized holes where it landed. Nobody had time to answer the houshi's unfinished question though, as the jar immediately lunged at the nearest body. "Inuyasha-behind you!" he called out instead as the jar just nearly missed the hanyou.

"I see it!" Inuyasha yelled spinning away to take a crack at it with his claws. "Shit this thing is quick!" He growled having to duck the jar on its rebound. The jar landed with a crack against a tree, and stuck there a few moments, its spine like legs penetrating the bark to hold it up.

Miroku instantly shoved his staff in front of him to bar off and block the jar's spines and strode forward, reaching into his sleeve for an offuda. His eyes widened as the jar burped and turquoise liquid that bubbled and frothed and smelled to high heaven, like moldering earth, it came spewing forth, and began to eat into his robes. "Woah!" Miroku cried and using the staff launched the jar away sideways into another tree-narrowly missing Shippou.

"WAHH! INUYASHA!" the kit screamed as he dove out of the way of the spines that seemed to rotate in his direction. It wheeled about and leapt from its position just as Inuyasha's claws made another try for slicing contact.

"Senkontetsu!" Inuyasha cried, missing the jar entirely and instead slicing through the tree. "Damn it! Where the hell'd it get to now?!" He pulled back, his claws spread, the tree cracking in half and falling behind him. The three stood grouped in the center of the brush, watching with vigilant eyes for its next attack.

"I don't think I like fighting old pickle jars..." Shippou complained, latching on to Inuyasha's shoulder and trembling there. There was a rustle above them, and Shippou looked up just in time to see a few leaves fall from the tree and then sharp spines aimed straight for his head come straight after. "SHIT!" He screamed and jettisoned himself away.

Inuyasha-wasn't half so lucky. The thing landed squarely, knocking the wind out of him. The pot appeared to gurgle and turquoise goop oozed from its lip. Inuyasha could only wheeze and stare at it for an instant before Miroku stepped in and whacked the jar, sending it flying, and reached down to help him up. "Thanks..."

"All in our best interests. You are bleeding-"

"Keh! Fucking pot! Tetsusaiga!" Inuyasha called and launched off at the jar drawing and swinging the fang blade in a high arc towards the jar. The jar was much quicker and dodged the attack with great agility to make a leaping bound for the kit instead.

"WAH! It's after me now! Why?" Shippou hollered and spun his wheels to move quickly out of the jars way.

Miroku tried again to break the body of the pot with his staff before attempting to use his kazanna. "Move Shippou!" He cried as he made a solid strike. It however, countered deftly and rotated its lid, spitting out small black things-small black things with eight legs and pinchers, all over him. "Poisonous spiders!" the houshi backed off grabbing at his robes frantically, pulling off spider after spider.

While the monk was occupied, the jar went for the kitsune again, Inuyasha was ready for it. "Shippou! Out of the way!" Inuyasha called out as the Tetsusaiga began to glow, gathering the winds of youki that preceded the kaze no kizu. Shippou obediently made a sideways, split second dash to the left just as Inuyasha raised the fang blade up above him and began his attack. But again, the jar was too quick and was spitting out small pottery shards that landed near Inuyasha. These began to glow red and suddenly swirled up into the air encircling the Tetsusaiga. "What in the seven hells-" He barely had time to say that as the jar shards bombarded the fang blade and exploded all at once as they hit it. "AHH! Those shards-! They took away Tetsusaiga's transformation!"

"Oh no! We're doomed!" Shippou cried out just before he let out an ear splitting "AHH! HELP ME!" just realizing the jar had caught up and was in front of him, gurgling its turquoise acid and making threatening gestures with its razor sharp barbs.

"Shut up you twerp!" Inuyasha growled sheathing the blade and making a leap to where the jar was on top of Shippou to make another swipe at it with his good arm. "Senkontetsu!"

In response, the jar leapt from Shippou, pushing the kitsune aside and knocking him clear into a tree leaving him momentarily stunned, resulting in a black eye for later. "Oww..."

Inuyasha landed face first in the dirt. He just couldn't believe the things speed. Miroku saw what he thought was an opening and swung his staff in a hissing arc as hard and fast as he could.

The pot, some how sensing immediate danger from behind, lifted its lid and proceeded to spew out more spiders followed by exploding jar fragments and a sheaf of the turquoise acidic liquid all over the monk. Miroku backed off with a cry as Inuyasha struggled to get up. Inuyasha rose to his feet and the pot resumed its attack upon him stabbing him suddenly right through the gut; its spine like spear going straight through. Inuyasha cried out in pain, his eyes widening. He sucked in a gasp and spun around; knocking the thing off of him to a tree again-where it clung.

Miroku prepared himself and shoving his staff in the forest floor held out his right hand to rip the beads from it. "KAZANNA!" He cried and unleashed the air void. Everything in the immediate area began to get sucked in to the hole. The jar held on to the tree with its spines even though it was getting pulled in.

Shippou returned to alertness with the unpleasant sensation of being vacuumed up, he dug his little claws in and shrieked.

"Shippou- get back!" Miroku called, but to late- the jar had let out more spiders that went barreling towards Miroku's air void. Unsure of whether spiders had the same effect as Naraku's bees, he cursed and closed the kazanna up again just as the jar leapt out over a squealing Shippou and away into the forests undergrowth.

"Oww, fuckin-a, just when ya think you've learned it all the kamies of fate throw another shitter at ya!"

"Bouzu- have I ever told you how much of a hypocrite you are?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"I don't know...can't remember"

Shippou sat up, holding his ringing head. "Can we go back now? I can't remember when we last lost to a household item but I want to go home." His little face was sporting a massive bruise and Miroku quickly moved to pick him up.

Inuyasha got up rather more slowly; blood was soaking the front of his suikan. "We'd better leave and warn the others. I have almost never dealt with anything so fast. And this time I failed." He used the hilt of his scabbarded sword to support him.

"Inuyasha," Miroku looked at him seriously, "that was surely an ancient creature. You know they get stronger the longer they live." He bit his lip, "Which worries me incidentally, just how old are you?" Inuyasha looked surprised and spent a few moments thinking, "I was fifty years on the tree, right?" Miroku shrugged agreement. "Then I think I must be sixty-seven."

"What!" Miroku stopped dead in the middle of the path. "That makes you younger than me!"

"No, I said I was sixty-seven." he looked at Miroku levelly. "Not seventeen, I treat you as a companion houshi, but donft make assumptions about my experience." He gave a grumbling growl.

"How could you have gained experience cosmically wandering the universe while pinned to a tree? ...Oh."

Inuyasha walked slowly on debating the use of correct posture versus the urge to walk hunched over with his fist pressing against his injured stomach. Miroku spoke again. "So, if you know all this stuff, then why the confusion over Kagome and Kikyou?"

Inuyasha snorted, "Keh, even you should know that Kikyou and I were bound by karma. Bound again when she revived in this world but now it seems she has left it. That was not a healthy thing, no, but one I was bound by." He paused. "I want Kagome," he said suddenly and with startling passion. "I've wanted her since I first saw her but there were always problems in the way. Now they just seem like so much stupid stuff, totally unimportant."

He sighed. "I don't know how to tell her. So I keep finding myself just watching her instead...I like to watch her sleep. She does things, you know? Moves her hands and sighs and says some pretty funny stuff. I want to know what she's dreaming." He was silent as he eased himself down a steep ditch in their way. "Hell, I want to know what she's thinking most of the time" he resumed after regaining the path, "since what comes out of her mouth isn't it. She's always trying to cover up for everybody until she gets mad. I never know when she's going to get some crazy idea. I don't want to miss a thing."

Miroku shook his head, 'Boy, and I thought I had it bad' Miroku thought but carefully did not say. He paced along beside the hanyou, the rings on his staff sounding a soft counterpoint. Eventually he asked, "What help do you need from me?"

They arrived at the village, looking as if they had been a week in the desert. This was a good thing as their womenfolk moved immediately to take care of their needs and asked few extraneous questions Shippou was put to bed with the half of an overripe papaya fruit over his eye. Miroku was given salve to put on his acid burns after he bathed in the cold freshet of water that sprung from Kaede's hill and down into a fairly wide pool.

Inuyasha stood by the doorway of the hut until Kagome was satisfied about Shippou and then proceeded to look as if he were dying from exhaustion. She looked out of the hut at him in a measuring glance and he played up his piteousness to the hilt. Her face grimaced and closed, ready to turn away when she caught the slick glimmer of fresh blood on his suikon. She stepped quickly out.

"Why are you still bleeding?" She was pulling at his clothing ties. He placed a hand over hers, restraining her. She rapidly backed him up against the split rail fence.

"What the gods own fuck do you care, bitch?" He caught her hand, quite gently {really} and held it up between them. She was forced to look him in the face then and quickly dropped her eyes. "What are you thinking of, to go picking at me like that?" He questioned, his eyes half hooded in their heavy lids.

"Inuyasha don't tease for what you don't want." she said carefully and clearly, her blush painful. "I want you in good health."

His hands followed hers and caught her fingers again as she attempted to untie his suiken. "I'm O.K. Kagome."

"Miroku says not."

He raised his eyebrows, "Oh Miroku." he echoed rather rudely. He put his hands down on either side of his hips and let her have her way, presenting himself like some little boy in need of help with his clothes. This made Kagome pause, as nothing else would have. She blushed and hesitantly spread his clothing apart. In a moment she gave a distressed exclamation and gently removed the suikan and kosode altogether, showing a deep puncture that bled in a steady trickle and had its corresponding exit wound on his back.

It was a nasty hole and Kagome took her time over cleaning it. She could not help her awareness of just how close he was to her. He did not make it any easier, keeping his gaze on her face as she reached around his narrow waist to wrap the bandages about him. She could feel his body heat, and smell some scent that was peculiarly his own: A woodsy smell that the coppery odor of fresh blood could not cover. By the time she was done she was blushing furiously with her heart pounding in her ears. She just knew he could hear it. She finished the last knot with trembling fingers and flinched back as he moved suddenly and reached around her to grab his clothes from where they hung on the fence post.

He didn't speak but nodded briefly and brushed past her. He marched off over the hill and into the trees that concealed the small waterfall and pool that provided Kaede's water source. Once there he did not stop walking but marched straight in and sat down in the icy pool.

'Gods, what was the matter with me?' he thought miserably, 'Why can't I just take the girl and have done with it?' The flare of desire that followed that thought caused him to lie straight backwards into the water and spend a small space in time gazing up at the autumn sky through a wavering lens.

A dark flicker of movement on the bank caught his attention and was the only warning he had before a clawed hand sliced through the water and latched itself onto his shoulder. He reacted instantly, clutching at the assaulting hand and pulling the owner of it into the water with him.