InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Project Hope ❯ Archery Lessons ( Chapter 7 )

Yup, yup, yup. The demon is Yura of the Hair. I agree that Naraku should just give it up but then my story would fall apart.

I want your opinion on this. I was thinking about just sticking to Kag/Inu although there won't be too much WAFF for a bit. Do you want some Sess/Rin? I might be able to squeeze them in but it'll be pretty pointless.

Slywolf- I' glad that you're enjoying it ^^

Ok Review Plezz

Chapter 7

Beware of the Hair

The whole ride to the priest/priestess school, Inuyasha kept trying to remember who Kagome had reminded him of. It was at the very edge of his mind but just out of reach. He was so deep in thought that when they reached the school, he didn't even know until Kagome elbowed him in the side.

"Hey, are you there?" Her voice was teasing.

He shrugged and gave a smirk. "Nope, just imaging how bad those students must be."

Kagome didn't say anything for a second wondering if that was really what he had been thinking about.. But she smiled back and defended the students. "Hey, those students are pretty good. One day they might be kicking your butt so watch it."

Inuyasha jumped lightly to the ground and Kirara trotted after the rest of the group. "I doubt that."

Kagome rolled her eyes and walked off toward the building. He could be so self-confident it was annoying.

Inuyasha watched Kagome back for a moment before following her. The school it self was an old fashioned Japanese jodo. (No idea how you spell that but I think its kinda like a kendo school) Inuyasha would have thought it was a maze by the seemingly endless amounts of hallways there were.

Kagome looked back at him and carelessly said, "Better keep up. One wrong turn and you'll be lost in here forever."

Inuyasha skeptically snapped back, "You're walking so slow I might run over you. And if I got lost I'd just bash my way through. And to totally screw what you just said, you wouldn't be teaching kids here if that were the case."

To Inuyasha's surprise, Kagome laughed. It was an annoyed and kind of amused laugh but a laugh all the same. She spun on her heels so that she was walking backwards and facing him. "I'm glad to know you have more that two brain cells in there. But I still win. If you ran over me I'd let the students use you for target practice and we're working on archery today." Here she made a left turn without even looking over her shoulder. "And the students won't get lost."

That sure grin on her face was annoying the shit out of Inuyasha. "How the fuck are you so sure that they wont her lost?"

Kagome's grin stayed on her face almost as if it was craved into wood. "Because the house will look out for them."

Inuyasha and shook his head at Kagome. "I think your brain's spilling out of your head. We should get you some counseling."

Kagome stopped walking so abruptly that Inuyasha almost smacked into her. It was starting to scare him that her expression hadn't changed one bit. "Ok, wench. Is that grin screwed onto your face or are you just incapable of changing your expression?"

Kagome replied in a cheerful voice. "I am fully capable of changing my expression but I figured since you constantly making me angry, by smiling I can avoid my face screwing up from all the angry expressions you may bring upon it."

Ok…This girl was stranger than he had given her credit for. "Ok then what did you mean about the house taking care of the little varmints? What, these slabs of wood have a mind?"

To prove his point, Inuyasha took his fist and threw his weight into the wall, meaning to make a hole in it. Just as his fist was a millimeter away from the wall, it -the wall not his fist- disappeared. In its place was now another hallway. Inuyasha having fallen lay on the floor in astonishment as Kagome laughed. She offered her hand but Inuyasha jumped up, pretending he hadn't seen her outstretched offer. He quickly dusted off his shirt and crossed his arms.

"Ok. Now, it might be me but I don't think that walls are supposed to do that. Is it just me?"

Kagome mimicked Inuyasha's pose and said, "Well that depends on how you look at things."

Inuyasha crocked his head and gave Kagome weird look. "And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Kagome twirled a stray strand of hair around a finger. "It means that this house isn't a house."

Inuyasha gave a low and annoyed growl. "Are you playing with me or do you have no idea what a straight answer is?"

Kagome finally gave in and grinned. "Ok, ok. This house isn't a house. I meant that. This is Shanti. She's a house demon."

Inuyasha blew air out of his nose like a bull. "A house demon, huh? Never met-uh, never been in one before."

Suddenly a new voice said, "Well then you're one deprived child." The voice was definitely female.

Surprised, Inuyasha looked behind him and looked up. "Two things. I'm not a child. Who the hell are who?"

The voice matched Inuyasha's tone vocal cord for vocal cord and it growled back. "Two things. Since I am eleven thousand, four hundred and twenty-two years, two months, one day and fourteen minutes old, you are to me, a child. Second. I am Shanti."

Poor Inuyasha was still trying to process the big numbers.

At that moment a person walked out of the wall. She was tall and slim. Her fairly dark skin gave off an almost reddish glow. Her hair was green and tied up in a tight ponytail at the top of her head. Even so, it reached just higher than her hip. On one of her cheeks was a tattoo of a leaf. She was wearing a tan skirt that was translucent-knees down- Her shirt ended right above her belly-button. She was quite pretty.

Inuyasha stepped back. Kagome stepped forward and said, "Inuyasha this is Shanti. Shanti this is Inuyasha. "

Shanti glanced at Inuyasha and sniffed. "Charmed."

Inuyasha glared and barked back. "Can't say the same for you. I was expecting an old hag."

Shanti impatiently said, "I'm young for a house elf. We live up to be 100,000 years and we age slowly. Oh come on, don't you know anything?"

Inuyasha ominously cracked his knuckles. Kagome quickly stepped in between the two. "See Inuyasha? This is what I meant before. The children wont get lost because Shanti will change her structure to get them to their classes. She's really cool. She can make kitchens, gyms, bedrooms and all that stuff in a blink of an eye."

Shanti narrowed her eyes and glared at Inuyasha. "Let's not forget halls. One of these days I'll get you for trying to break my wall."

Opps. Suddenly Inuyasha wasn't so confident that he should have done that. Shanti glanced over at Kagome and said, "I was just coming to get you anyways. The others are waiting for you guys."

Kagome slapped her head. "Oh yea! Shanti can you give us a hand? Or a passage?"

One side of her mouth went up in a grin as Shanti put her hand on the wall. She glowed for a second and a door appeared behind Inuyasha and Kagome.

Shanti cracked her neck. "There you go." Then she took a step back. "See you later Kagome. And if I'm unfortunate, I'll see you later too Inuyasha."

She then melted into the wall and disappeared. Well in better terms, she didn't disappear since she was the house itself. Kagome tugged at Inuyasha's sleeve. "Come on, let's go!"

Kagome pushed the sliding door open and walked in. Inuyasha's ears twitched at the sound of chattering children. Inuyasha stepped into the room and glanced around. The walls and floor was wood. At one end of the room, bows and arrows of all different sizes hung from the wall in neat rows. On another wall hung all different kinds of swords. The room was neat simple but quite effective for it's purpose.

There were about fifteen students there. All of them looked to be around eleven or twelve and there were both girls and boys. They were sitting in three straight rows and as soon as Kagome walked into the room, they all shut up. Kagome and Inuyasha strode to the front of the room where the rest of the group was waiting.

"What took you guys so long? We were about to start without you." Sango scolded. She then turned to the students and announced, "I'm sure that all you know Lady Kagome. Her friend is Inuyasha."

The students began to whisper. After all, Kagome was one of the three greatest priestesses here.

Kagome smiled widely. "What's with Lady Kagome? Just call me Kagome."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and said under his breath, "Yeah, she's a lady and I'm a dwarf with fuzzy ears."

Kagome twitched slightly and narrowed her eyes. A sudden air of authority hovered over her as she turned to Inuyasha and everyone felt it. Speaking a clear and sure voice Kagome said, "Inuyasha, I may not walk around with a crown on my head or drive around in a golden carriage, but I along with Sango and Rin are highest here. We are lower only to our teacher and adopted mother, Kaede." Sango and Rin stepped to a side of Kagome, the same air around them. Even Rin looked serious.

Inuyasha didn't move but his figure seemed to shrink. Kagome spoke again. "We're known as Lady Kagome, Lady Rin and Lady Sango because we founded this Hope and because of our rank as high priestesses of our home. I don't expect and definitely don't want anyone to get on their knees and kiss my shoes. And I prefer it when people just call me Kagome so I'm not asking you to call me lady. I just want to make it clear that technically I am one."

Kagome finished speaking and she smiled gently at Inuyasha. Feeling like he had been given a lecture, Inuyasha didn't say anything but merely nodded his head a fraction of an inch. Damn this girl could be scary.

A few of the students snorted and gave muffled giggles. Clearing her throat, Sango said, "Ok, today we're all going to be working on our archery skills. We've divided you up in three groups. The first line will come with Miroku and I, the second line will go with Rin and Sesshomaru and lastly the last line will go with Kagome and Inuyasha. All right people go and get your bows and arrows."

Quickly getting to their feet, the students hurried, got their bows and arrows and lined up in front of their assigned teachers. Inuyasha sulked over to where Kagome was and sneered. "So this is the group we're teaching?"

Kagome smiled inwardly, glad that he was still himself. She counted heads and sighed. "Ok where's Joy?"

Inuyasha ears perked up at the name. That was the girl that he had met. His unofficial little sister. The door to the room burst open and a short little girl ran into the room. Her sun bleached brown hair was pulled pack in a ponytail that was miraculously still rather neat.

Panting, Joy, looking very cute in her miko in training outfit said, "I'm sorry Miro" Suddenly realizing that Kagome was there, she ran up to her and gave her a hug. "Kagome! You're here! Are you going to teach is today?"

Kagome nodded and said, "Hey look over there." Pointing at Inuyasha she put Joy down."

Joy squealed in delight and hurled herself at Inuyasha. "Oni-chan! Joy's so happy to see you!"

Inuyasha sat the girl on his shoulder and pretended to scowl. "Why the hell are you so late?"

Blushing and looking embarrassed, Joy whispered in Inuyasha ear. When Joy withdrew, Inuyasha lowered his head so that his bangs covered his face. A strange noise that sounded like he was trying very hard to suppress laughter bubbled from his clenched jaws. Giving a final snort Inuyasha raised his head. "Are you learning to be a priestess?"

Joy puffed herself up looking very proud. "Yup. Joy wants to be a powerful priestess just like Miss. Kagome and Miss. Sango and Miss. Rin."

Kagome beamed at the little girl and said, "Joy's one of the best students we have. That's why she's with this more advanced group instead of her age group."

The teachers herded their assigned groups to three different archery fields. Meanwhile…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~

Yura sat on a tree branch and fiddled with long and deadly sharp strands of hair. "My goodness this is a very dull assignment. I can't even entertain myself by killing some humans."

Naraku had forbidden her from killing anyone and she could not disobey. It was how she had been breed. Yura's hand tightened around the white comb she held and flicked her wrist. Following a short silence, the tree behind the one she was sitting on fell over.

"Oh well. I suppose it's time I take a stroll around town." Jumping lightly from her perch, Yura walked off toward town to gather some information about the barrier and to buy some shampoo. She was in no rush.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~