InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Protege ❯ Protege ( Chapter 1 )

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Another woman's scream of indignity fills the night air, and yet another shoji door erupts in a shower of wood and washi paper as the offending person is thrown into the street.

Once again, the broken record of the man's evening skips and repeats its same pathetic tune.

The man stands up, and with a smile big enough to be seen even in the moonless night, he brushes off his clothes as if he had simply tripped and not been unceremoniously tossed out on his face. It was doubtful he had sustained any damage; his ego most likely cushioned his landing.

"Well, shall we move on to the next town then?" It was with a haughty smirk that he headed towards the next unfortunate village, intent on enjoying the rest of his evening.

******

"I swear when I get my hands on that damn lecher..." A very irate, very human Inuyasha stomped ahead of the two women, agitation seeping through every pore.

"Come on Inuyasha, he's been doing so good lately, he hasn't done this in ages! Can't you cut him a little slack?", pleaded the taijiya. The only response she received was an emphatic Keh!. On the hanyou's other side, a tired, irked Kagome sighed deeply. They had been searching local villages for hours now, and she was ready to go home. Had it been any other night, the 'problem' would have been sniffed out quickly enough, dealt a few blows, and it would have been done with. Not this time though, and she was relatively sure that this was what was agitating her husband so badly. Not only had the hentai slipped out to go who knows where, he had done it on a New Moon night. Inuyasha took that as the challenge is was most assuredly meant to be, and with a taijiya and miko in tow, they began combing through the closest towns.

Sadly, his trail was not hard to follow. Inquiries into any strangers that may have passed through were met with enraged men and incensed women who were intelligent enough to hide their lustful blushes from their husbands with simulated embarrassment and well placed fans. As the trail grew warmer, so did the hanyou. Human or not, there was going to be blood when this game of hide-and-seek ended.

******

As he placed the last ofuda on the doorway of the latest house, he inwardly sighed. If this goes much in the same manner as my last attempts, I'll have to head home. I'm out of ofuda, and my homecoming will be rough enough as it is... With a flourish he turned to the lord of the house and bowed, a resounding clap breaking the silence that had been given to him for purposes of concentration.

"It is done milord, the ominous clouds that hovered over your home shall dissapate, and your prosperity shall flourish. Now, if you will excuse me, I shall take my leave of you, for it is a long way back to my own home." He took his time to stand and turn, and his stomach itched with butterflies when the lord of the house didn't even hesitate to offer up one of his rooms in exchange for the 'selfless' service he had rendered. A smirk tickled the edges of his mouth as a servant led the way to a large room being prepared for a meal for the guest of honor. As he took a seat at the spot being prepared, he noticed an extra setting being placed across from him. The confusion must have shown on his face because as the last servant left the room he turned and, bowing deeply, informed him that as the lord has very pressing matters to attend to, he would be accompanied by the eldest daughter of the house.

There wasn't a chance in hell the servant missed the impish smile that was plastered to his visage upon hearing this.

*****

"See Inuyasha? He's probably already headed home; no one has noticed any trouble-makers here." Never had Kagome wished there was a moon out more than she did at this point, and her reasons had everything to do with the violence she wished to inflict on her husband. Sadly, his human body just couldn't handle what she had been fantasizing about the last four hours. The only beacon of light was that dawn was drawing near, and not only would Inuyasha be able to hunt down the damn lech that had thus far eluded them, she would be able to exact her vengeance upon the stubborn hanyou. Not to mention, she was certainly getting a ride home out of this!

"Keh, either that or he finally got dragged out to the bushes and beaten like the swindler he is." he mumbled, the very image bringing a smile to his face.

One would think that even in human form, someone could feel two pairs of eyes glaring holes into their very soul.

"OSUWARI!!!"

Guess not.

As the fuming mess of fire rat and human separated itself from the soil, an all too familiar scream reverberated through the village. Shortly after, an audible smack made everyone wince, and the sounds of splintering wood and plenty of angry men convinced the group to sprint towards the disturbance. In the lightening sky, it wasn't difficult to find which house it was, nor was it challenging to locate the perpetrator. As he rose from the ground in the middle of the street, he took notice of the mob-like villagers to his left and turned to quickly make his exit, stage right. All semblance of a smile melted from his face when he saw a trio of very familiar, very unhappy faces, and for the first time that night, he panicked. As he ran into the alley before him, he sourly jested with himself that he didn't know which would be a worse fate: punishment via villagers or hanyou.

As he leapt onto the surrounding rooftops, he knew that the chase was doing nothing more than adding fuel to the fire, and when he felt a telltale pulse of energy as the morning sun burst forth over the horizon and an inflamed youki erupt from behind him, he knew he was done for. Sure enough moments later his head was swimming as his body slammed into the roof he was on, a snarling cursing silver hound from hell dragging his prone form back to its master.

They were halfway home before he finally regained conciousness, and it was to the angry face of a miko. The difficult decision to allow him to keep his concious state was made, and he was forced to make the last leg of the journey wobbling like a drunkard down the road. He was sure to keep his eyes averted, but even so he felt the glares boring into him the whole way home. It was with the slightest relief that they crowned the last hill and their village lay beneath them, and it was all he could do not to run to his hut and hide for the next week or so. As if sensing such a thought, the hound of hell grabbed him up by his scruff and led him the whole way down to Kaede's hut. As the door was pushed aside, so was he shoved, for the seemingly hundreth time that night, to the ground at the feet of the only occupants in the hut.

"Here Miroku, we've cleaned up your mess, AGAIN! You're supposed to be training him as a monk, not a lecher! Make sure ya not gettin your lessons mixed up!" With a final 'keh' and a look of distaste, the hanyou retired from the hut, no doubt to sleep the day away. A bemused monk looked down at his apprentice, trying his best to conceal his amusement at the scene.

"Well Shippo, how did you fare in your mission?" The monk sipped at his tea to hide the obvious smirk from a clearly unimpressed Kaede.

"I got to second base." He toothily beamed, the memories still vivid in his mind.

"Good boy. You're coming along nicely."