InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Returning Home ❯ Getting To Know You ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

A/N: latter on in this chapter Akria is comparing Kagome's Kitsune biological age with human biological age, remember that this is the feudal ages and if he were talking to us he would say that she was 15 or 16 instead.

Chapter 12: Getting To Know You

Kagome yawned and stretched against the tree she was sitting under. It was almost time for Akira to meet them, InuYasha was sitting under the godtree, looking unapproachable and Kagome was trying not to fade off to sleep or chase after the butterfly that did insist on fluttering around InuYasha's left ear. InuYasha, and his ear, were perfectly unaware of the great danger the butterfly presented…

*

"So… This is your territory, but InuYasha's land." Miroku restated. Sango, Kirara and him had been heading back to the village after a short journey to neighboring villages in the south when they met up with Akira and Shippo in InuYasha's forest. Though they didn't think that Kohaku would end up there, they had decided to spread the word that they were looking for Sango's younger brother, just in case. And so that they were doing something while Kagome learned how to better use her new form.

"Right," Akira nodded, "Inu's have land, it is considered that they own it and the people and animals and trees and stuff on it. They protect it fiercely. Kitsunes don't care as much, our territory, where we hunt and play, is looser and generally over laps with other kitsunes and similarly minded youkai. We may have a village under our protection, but nothing as serious as the Inu's. But Inu's are much rarer then are we are. But Kitsunes are not in the service of anyone."

"…I can see how you would have difficulty with InuYasha after he walked in on you gazing into Kagome's eyes." Sango thought out loud, "Why did you do that? What's so important about Kagome's biological age?"

"Well, there are many factors that you may not under-" Akira started to answer in a broad sweeping way but was interrupted by Miroku.

"She's off limits." He stated sagely.

"Uh, yes, that too." Akira said defeated, Shippo snorted, "If I were to compare her to a human, she would be 12 or 13. A young 13. She wouldn't even have had her first heat yet. While it is accepted that kitsunes of the same age may explore that part of life, it wouldn't be right for an older kitsune to take advantage of their naiveté."

"So you approached Kagome to see… Agh." Sango turned her head away to show her distain for all things male.

"Hey, she's cute." Akira defended, "It would be easier to teach her if … And there are other reasons. It's a whole different set of problems for her to face."

"Excuse me," Miroku slid into the conversation, "Did you say "heat"?"

"Yeah, it's not that bad." Akira waved the subject off, "I would prefer to talk to Kagome about that alone."

"That's not going to happen." Shippo folded his arms in a very InuYasha way, "No way is InuYasha going to leave you alone with Kagome."

Akira shook his head, "It will be a while before we have to worry about it anyway. Maybe I can find someone else to do it. Maybe a female."

*

Kagome watched forlornly as her butterfly tormentor fluttered away into the canopy above. Now what would she do?

Kagome looked across at InuYasha. How does he sit so still? There was so much going on, so many things they could be doing, and none of them were here! Kagome let out a breath of frustration and scratched absently at her hand.

"Ow!" she yipped. Kagome put the undamaged hand over her mouth in surprise, she had yipped! Like a, a, dog or something!

She looked over at InuYasha peevishly, was he smiling? Kagome huffed, in a far too dog like way, and looked at her wounded hand. She was bleeding a little bit; she had forgotten that her claws were so sharp. Without thinking Kagome lifted it up and licked the wound.

InuYasha was trying very hard not to laugh, so far he had heard Kagome yip, snort and huff like a canine. All were far too cute coming from Kagome, but he doubted she would want to hear that. Not that he thought of telling her. He was too busy trying not to laugh.

A sudden gasp from Kagome made him open his eyes a little.

Kagome was looking at her tongue. She couldn't believe she could actually see it without a mirror! It was at least two inches longer! And, maybe a little thinner? It was hard to tell, she had never seen it from this perspective before.

She heard InuYasha give a chuckle and looked up. He was grinning at her. Suddenly he parted his lips and stuck his out tongue. All the way out. It was at least as long as hers and maybe a little thicker.

Kagome pulled her tongue back in and started to crawl toward InuYasha. Her curiosity had been piqued.

*

"How is that possible?" Sango shook her head in confusion.

"I'm not sure," Akira put his hand to his chin thoughtfully, "But my sources say that that is the way it is. In most ways Kagome is an adolescent hanyou, but in others Kagome is a near infant of a kitsune. It will take a while for her to catch up to herself, mentally. Personally I think it will be good for InuYasha as well."

"How so?" Miroku asked, this was getting more complicated by the minute.

"Well, InuYasha was very young when he was cast out of youkai society, and humans probably didn't want to trust him with their young." Akira said, "He didn't get to do those things that young youkai do. There was never anyone around him that looked like him or could play those youkai games with him. I've always thought some of his problems stemmed from that. Kagome will need to go through the same games that InuYasha missed out on in order to progress in a healthy manner. Their ages and … relationship will make things interesting, but I think InuYasha should be the one to play those games with her. I think it might help fill in parts of his mind too."

"But I wanted to play with Kagome!" Shippo spoke up emphatically.

"If Kagome was the same size as you are, I'd agree." Akira said to Shippo, not unkindly, "But how long will it take for Kagome to out strip you in a chase, or lose you in a hunt?"

"Ok fine." Shippo pouted, then looked up at Akira, "You're not going to let InuYasha chase Kagome are you?"

"I was going to suggest Kagome chase InuYasha." Akira winked at Shippo.

"Good," Shippo nodded, "I want my sister to my self for a while."

*

InuYasha pulled his tongue back into his mouth as Kagome crawled towards him slowly. Kagome frowned when he did that, but continued crawling until she was right in front of him with her knees touching his shins.

She put her hands flat on her thighs while she looked up at him, her head slightly tilted. There had to be more to do here than look at InuYasha's tongue.

InuYasha looked blankly back at her. He had no idea what she was doing and that made him nervous. But he refused to show it.

Kagome saw InuYasha's ears twitch nervously. She wondered what her ears felt like. Slowly she raised one hand to the top of the side of her head and ran her fingers over the tip of her ear. It shivered and twitched. Kagome giggled, THAT was a strange sensation, but not entirely unpleasant. Next she held the furry appendage between her fingers and ruffled the fur before smoothing it out again.

InuYasha watched Kagome feeling her ear and his fingers twitched. He wanted to feel her ears. He had never felt another beings ears before, as weird as that sounded, and he really wanted to feel Kagomes'.

Kagome looked InuYasha in the eye and she removed her hand from her ear and slowly moved it over to his. She let it hover over his ear while InuYasha slowly lifted his hand to hers.

InuYasha carefully closed his fingers over the fuzzy bit of flesh. It was thinner then his ear, more fragile, and hotter, probably because her fur was thinner over her ears than his were. And her fur was so soft.

It was a new sensation from a new appendage, but it didn't really feel one way or the other. If anything it just made her nervous. InuYasha's ear was as she remembered, though now she felt that his fur was somewhat courser than hers.

What about their claws?

Kagome let go of his ear and grabbed his hand, which was working his way slowly down her ear toward the base and making her more nervous. She brought his hand down until it was just a few inches in front of her face. She held his hand so that his palm was toward her and she put her palm against his.

His claws were longer and thicker than hers, but duller. `How does he manage to slice things so easily with them?' she wondered as she compared his claws to her own.

InuYasha turned his hand a little to look at Kagome's dainty little claws, they were so small and delicate looking. Everything about her seemed so … delicate. The world was so unforgiving, he didn't want to find out if she was still tougher than she looked. He wanted to protect her, from everything.

Kagome lowered their hands when she saw him looking at her instead of her hand. She looked at his mouth; again she was wondered whose tongue was longer. She stuck out her tongue, just a little as she wondered.

InuYasha watched Kagome stick out her tongue and unconsciously allowed his to protrude from his mouth. He wanted to taste her again, but he didn't want to move. He didn't want to spook her.

Kagome tilted her head again, `I wonder… so much has changed, would he feel the same, or taste the same, now that I'm different?'

Slowly, so she wouldn't spook InuYasha she leaned forward until she could touch her tongue to InuYasha's.

"Should we come back later?" Akira's amused voice caused Kagome to mysteriously appear back under her original tree, blushing deeply, and InuYasha to suddenly be standing with his back pressed against the God tree, wearing a slight blush and looking for a way out.

"Come on kids," Akira coxed, "calm down, we've got some things to talk about, remember?"

InuYasha settled down to the ground, still blushing, but Kagome remained unmoved.

"I believe that you had some questions for me?" Akira sat near InuYasha and looked at Kagome expectantly.

"Um, yeah…" Kagome looked up at him bashfully, "That wasn't what it looked like."

Akira merely nodded.

"So…" Kagome crawled a little closer to the men, then perched in a kneeling position and looked at them with wide eyes, but remained silent.

"Kagome?" Sango asked quietly, "Are you alright?"

Kagome shook her head, "Ev-everythings wrong." Kagome's voice started to waver and her lower lip trembled, "I move all wrong, I can't get used to my tail, my ears don't make any sense, everything's too bright, my claws are too sharp, I cut my self three times today! I have strange impulses, I'm all nervous, and everything smells strange and I don't know why!"

Kagome settled down and wiped the tears from her eyes. It was bad enough that she had blurted all that out without her bawling in front of everyone.

Akira blinked, "Ok, most of that is just getting used to your new form. Your claws will be sharper because you're young and female, but you should learn to dull them once you calm down a bit. That's what InuYasha does. You'll figure out how to work around them."

"Dull them?" Kagome looked at InuYasha curiously. He just shrugged and looked at Akira.

Akira sighed, "Ever notice how his claws are sharp enough to split hairs during battle? If his claws were always that sharp he would have a hard time caring for himself and couldn't ever touch others. I'm guessing you've been on guard since you changed, it's a youkai thing in general, nails are easy to manipulate so we generally wear human nails unless we need our claws for some reason."

Kagome nodded, "So when I calm down, my claws will become dull?"

"No…" Akira looked at InuYasha, who was looking at his claws, "They will get somewhat duller, and once you reach true maturity they will be as manageable as InuYasha's. But as a female and kitsune, your claws will always be a little sharper then his." Akira looked thoughtful, what else had she said? "Everything's too bright?"

Kagome nodded, "It's not too bad here, in the forest, but out in the open when the sun is shining directly on everything, I can't see things well."

"Is it painful?" Akira asked, concerned.

"No, just annoying." Kagome answered, "And exhausting, squinting all the time."

Akira lowered his head and closed his eyes in thought, "Hanyous are half transformed and kitsunes are creatures of evening and early morning… Your night vision is likely better InuYasha's, though I wouldn't test him. There is a difference in the way that humans and kitsunes see the world… I've never been human so I don't know, you might learn to adjust for this … brightness." Akira paused to scratch his neck, "When it comes to senses I think you should ask InuYasha, or some other hanyou, I've never been human so I don't know what the difference is. What do you mean you move differently?"

"I don't know." Kagome sighed, "I… crawl more, and better." She offered, "and when I'm on my feet I … sway, a little. Or bits of me do."

Akira grinned; he'd noticed that, "You don't walk much differently. Though you might find that your tail moves on its own once you calm down."

"Is it that obvious?" Kagome asked uncertainly. She thought she had done a good job keeping her nervousness to herself, but the way Akira spoke it was very obvious.

"Mostly just talking to you now." Akira replied, "Female kitsunes move their tails more than males and it tells a lot about them, mostly their emotional state. When they hold their tails still, it means they are nervous. It's like holding your breath to hear better."

"That's not fair!" Kagome rose up a little on her knees, "You shouldn't be able to tell that stuff about me just by looking at my tail."

"And it isn't fair that you can get a good idea of InuYashas' state of mind by looking at his ears, but you can." Akira countered.

"Hey!" InuYasha's ears perked indignantly.

"Why only the females?" Sango asked, despite her better judgment.

Akira grinned again, "We have a story about that, the males do, the females don't like it very much. But it has been told that long ago the females used to have sport with the males, getting them … in a state and laughing at them for a lack of control."

"That hardly seems fair." Miroku said.

Akira nodded, "So, someone, I don't remember, decided that the females would have something they had almost no control over and changed the way they interacted with their tales. But that is just a story."

"What else does my tail say about me?" Kagome pouted prettily.

"You really want me to spell it out in front of your friends?" Akira asked.

"No!" Kagome squeaked.

Akira chuckled.

"I've always wondered about the youkai forms." Sango asked after a moment of silence, "If Kagome is part way between them, why does she look like she does? Why do other hanyou look more like their youkai parents power form? Why does Kouga have a tail and InuYasha not?"

Every one settled in to listen intently, closed his eyes and dropped his head a little to aid in hearing.

"Alright, I know a little about the youkai forms and hanyou's." Akira closed his eyes in thought, "A youkai's physical appearance, in the human like form, is based on several factors. Power, lineage, alignment, and age.

"The more powerful a youkai is the more attractive they are. Power, goes closely with lineage to determine the shape that our bodies take, but more on that latter. The form of that attractiveness is determined by alignment, a powerful bad youkai will look sexy, while an equally powerful good youkai will look beautiful to an equal degree. That's just for animal youkai, other beings, and youkai in power form go by different rules. Age is fairly obvious so that's about all I know on that. So InuYasha and Kagome are so attractive because their parent's power and their own power is so great, or potentially great.

"Actually Kagome's color, the color of her tail, is a variation that is thought among kitsunes to represent great power. So seeing it on a hanyou is … interesting, though I thought all a long that people were underestimating InuYasha's potential."

"What about Kouga's tail?" Sango reminded him.

"Yes, lineage." Akira sighed, "That sort of `ranks' youkai. The lowest youkai don't really have physical forms. The next level looks just like the animal they represent, only usually sporting a third eye. Kirara, beings that do not represent any living thing, come next. Then come the youkai that look partially transformed, like Myouga. As you go up the ranks more and more of the animal features are dropped. One of the last features to go is the tail, Kitsunes and Wolf youkai both sport tails, Inu's don't have them.

"It isn't really a hard rule that the less animal features the more powerful a youkai is, especially in the higher ranks." Akira amended quickly, "That is a common mistake and is one reason that youkai have such a bad reaction to InuYasha. His lack of additional animal features would mean that he is potentially powerful, but as a hanyou they believe he shouldn't be. It really just measures the closeness to the The youkai."

"The The youkai?" Kagome tilted her head slightly.

Akira grinned nervously, "That's what my sister calls them. They are the beings that humans got the definitions of what an inu or wolf or kitsune represents. They don't have human forms; they don't need them. But you may have noticed the Inu's of InuYasha's family are very large when they transform, while Kitsunes are only about the size of a large wolf when we transform. It's because Inu's are closer to their The youkai. Anything else?" Akira looked around at the group who were busy absorbing all that they had been told.

Miroku opened his eyes and raised his head to look at Akira, "You have a sister?"

*

A/N: Aloysha I forgot to mention that you were right about the boxed in reference in chapter 10! And you were the only one to comment on it.

I am still a die hard Inu/Kag fan, for those of you that are worried about that.

It's always good to hear from you Preist ^_^

Essie this chapter was posted because you reviewed, you were the only one that reviewed last chapter on Mediaminer.

And trinity757575, thank you for your kudos! I always thought they smelled like that too. But I guess I would, wouln't I? ^_^; Any way it made me feel great.

Redherring, Kagome's condition is being revealed as slowly as she is discovering it. It was disturbing for her for so much to change so suddenly so she's taking her time getting used to it. She will continue to learn over the next few chapters, or more. It should be fun!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please take the time to review.